A Rose By Any Other Name
by mintbaby
Summary: Vincent Valentine. Turk. Genetically engineered horror. Professor Natalie Long has fantasized the day she would find his resting place. A scientist who studied under Professor Gast, she believes she has found the means to cure him of the darker side to his nature. But when the cure could lead to his death, she isn't so certain she can live without him.
1. A Plea For Sleep

**.: A Rose By Any Other Name :. **

**dedicated to Vincent Valentine; the tortured soul.**

_If you like this style of story, you might enjoy my dramatic romance novels 'Daddy's Girl' or 'Searching for Sara' located at my original fiction website._

Author's Note: This story has, understandably, always been close to my heart. Not only was it the third fanfic I wrote, it also involved my favorite VGC. I never tire of reading this story. Nor do I tire of imagining sequels or continuations. Often I have wondered why I couldn't continue the story for my Vincent. After all, there is the gap between the epilogue and the final chapter. Then there is, also, the backstory possibility to more fully explain the person that is Professor Natalie Long. And what of Cloud and Tifa? Do they marry? Do they move to Midgar? Do they help Vincent and Natalie with their future plans? I hope that, with all these futures waiting to be told, I might one day take up this story to yet again add some delicious chapters to its adventure...

_The characters within this story and the world they live in are the property of SQUARE- Enix®. They are used without permission (though I would love to have permission) and not to be seen as my property. The character of Professor Natalie Long is my own creation. She is not to be used without permission._

**.: I -- A Plea for Sleep :.  
**

"...Let me sleep."

Natalie sat back from the coffin with a gasp. Then she set her rose lips into a thin line and pushed her shoulder-length auburn curls from her face. Her green eyes sparkled. "I don't think so, Mr. Valentine. I've been looking for you too long to turn away now."

Natalie leaned forward to give the lid a tug, startling backward when the cover flew off to smash against the bedrock wall. It dropped onto one of the other crypts, causing a cringe. A man clothed in black with a red cape rose from the coffin to perform a graceful back-flip midair before remaining suspended.

He stared down at her with intensely glowing red eyes. "Who are you?"

Natalie gulped hard, again brushing her tousled curls from her face. Her eyes took in his raven black hair and partially hidden but handsome face. "I'm-- My name is Natalie Long." She sat up, stomach and soul leaping with the possibility... "Vincent? Vincent Valentine?"

An eyebrow twitched. "Why did you wake me?"

"I..." Natalie cleared her throat. "I've been wanting to meet you for a long time." She rolled her eyes. _Now's your chance, Nat. Don't botch it with flimsy answers like that!_

Vincent's expression didn't change. "Let me sleep. I must atone." With that, he completed a full somersault and disappeared into the coffin. The lid clattered back into place.

"Wait! Can we talk? I have questions for you." Natalie scurried forward to pry the lid free yet again. It did the same fierce smack against the wall, but she jumped a little less. When he rose from the coffin this time, his expression showed strained irritation. "I don't mean to bother you, really, it's just... well... I wanted to ask some questions--"

"Your questions have no meaning for me. Go." Vincent withdrew back into the coffin.

Natalie scowled, long-fingered hands on slender hips. "For goodness sake." She stood to her feet and dusted off her jeans and shirt. "It would have been nice if you gave me a little more time to impress." She released a quick breath and shrugged. "Oh well. Maybe later."

Natalie moved toward the door, but something made her look back. She gave a slow smile and turned, leaning against the door as she crossed her arms. Then she chuckled softly, kicking at the ground with the toe of her hiking boot.

"I suppose I'll control my normal tendency toward irritating persistence and let you have your way," she said, not caring if he heard/listened or not. "But I will introduce myself." Natalie raised her green-eyed gaze from the ground as she absently brushed an auburn curl behind an ear. "As I said before, my name's Natalie Long. I'm a scientist. An archeologist, actually. A lover of mysteries and challenges alike."

Natalie adjusted her position against the door. "As a child I always loved hearing stories of buried treasure. It thrilled me to think I might actually solve a mystery and find a treasure, or something similar. That love grew to a fascination with histories of lost and unknown civilizations. In fact, I worked with the team that excavated Bone Village. I also participated in the cataloguing and stenciling of the Temple of the Ancients near Gongaga. Fascinating people. I truly enjoyed myself."

She uncrossed her arms and stepped forward, lowering herself to sit on the floor in the center of the room. "My reports and articles written on the project were popular. Selling thousands of copies, in fact. Maybe you've read one? In any case, they caught the eye of Shinra Corporation."

Natalie sighed, drawing her knees to her chest to wrap her arms around them. She rested her chin on her knees. "That is the reason I'm here now, and I know what you're thinking," she said as her eyes focused on the immobile and unwelcoming crypt. "'She's likely on their payroll.' But I never cared for big corporations. They have a tendency of being too stifling, and they usually have too many restrictions and regulations to suit me. Of course, you understand about that, don't you?"

Natalie absently smiled up at the black coffin, stretching her legs out in front of her to lean back on her hands. Then her smile wavered and vanished. "Sorry. Tangent. Where was I? Oh. Why I'm here. Right. I'm here at what people call 'Shinra Mansion' because of something I discovered about a scientist who used to work for the sprawling corporation. Gene splicing, interspecies breeding, DNA alteration, and forced experimentation to name but a few. True, much of it's unprecedented and what I would label bizarre, but I didn't want to be hasty and dismiss it. I am a scientist. Research is what we do."

Silence pressed in on Natalie, making her uncomfortable as she adjusted her hands and legs. She cleared her throat. _And why did you do this Research?_ the silence seemed to ask. _What pulled and tugged and consumed your interest, dragging you here? What desire forces you to spend more time with the dead than the living?_

Natalie cleared her throat again as she stood to her feet, brushing the dirt and dust from her pants and hands yet again. "Research. Yes. I guess you could say that brought me here. That's why I wanted to talk to you. To ask questions. To find answers that Shinra hid away. To do my best to find the one answer I want."

Natalie again raised her gaze from the ground to the coffin. "It took a lot of time and effort to find where Shinra hid you. Their files have only just been declassified. That is how I discovered that Shinra had..." Natalie pressed her lips together and lowered her gaze again. "Shinra tossed you aside as if you had no importance at all. I suppose Shinra never did see the worth of a person. They cared only for Mako and the money that came from controlling it."

Natalie released a deep breath. She looked up. "Now that Shinra is no longer an issue, life has been a bit more bearable. People have found their self-respect, and that attitude is spreading like wildfire. I suppose it helps that Mako production is outlawed and Materia hoarding taboo..." Natalie suddenly smiled, releasing an embarrassed chuckle. "Sorry. Tangent. I have a tendency toward running after those. Bad habit. Where was I? Oh. Questions."

Natalie cleared her throat. "I'm planning an article on the progress the planet has made since Materia was put back into the Lifestream. I would like to talk to quite a few people in order to get the information. Not my favorite activity, but it's for a good cause. At least it will be over soon and I can go to the fossilized remains they discovered outside Mt. Nibel. Maybe then I can concentrate on my work. I've already sent word for your friends to come here to Nibelheim. I wanted to check up on their plans, see what and how they're doing, and see if I could help. I also hoped I could ask... well... I hoped I could ask some questions about... you, and Hojo, and the experiments."

Natalie released a deep breath. "I know. It's a touchy subject, and I'm sorry. I understand if you'd rather not. I just thought you should know why I was traipsing in here, stomping around and bothering coffins and asking annoying questions." She smiled, her green eyes sparkling. "Thank you for at least listening, Mr. Valentine. I appreciate it."

Natalie made her way to the door, opening it and stepping through to close it slowly behind her. Before it had closed the entire way, she whispered, "I'll be back, Vincent. Sleep well."


	2. Picnics For The Soul

**.: II -- Picnics for the Soul :.**

Natalie lay in bed staring at the ceiling. She'd been staring at the same pattern in the wood of the roof for at least an hour trying to convince herself not to go to Shinra Mansion that morning. _You were just there yesterday. Do you want him to pull a Chaos on you?_

She closed her eyes, draping her arm across them with a slow sigh. Being in the basement had relaxed her. No people. No noises except for the calming drip of a leaky wall or the occasional creak of the roof. Even the sporadic scratching of the rats scurrying across the stone floor had soothed her nerves. Natalie couldn't keep herself away.

Natalie rolled onto her side, pulling her knees toward her chest as she clutched the blankets closer. When she'd read about Vincent Valentine - a Turk and glorified bully of Shinra Corporation - Natalie had been enthralled with his misery and self-indulged suffering, much as any young woman with dreams of romantic interludes. She supposed that had been the reason for her vow to find him. It had been the only romantic fantasy allowed. Everything else had been school and work, and the fact that Lucrecia had been the best friend of Natalie's high school science-teacher's sister had served to feed the fantasy.

_And now you're on the closer side of 30 than 25. You have no family, no adventure except the one you're in right now, and no beau waiting for your eventual return home... wherever that might be..._

Natalie tossed off the blankets to sit up, kicking her feet over the side of the bed to stare at her toes. _Nat, you are a silly, silly woman._ She released a quick breath. _Oh well. Might as well._ Natalie slid off the bed and made her way for the bathroom, towel in hand. Once out of the shower she dressed in a fresh T-shirt, all the while scolding herself for giving in to her own silly little fantasy.

"Oh leave me alone," she muttered.

She slipped into her jeans, struggled with her wool socks and hiking boots - scolded herself for not putting the socks on before her jeans - and then pulled her damp curls back into a ponytail. _Nat, think about this. Take a walk over to the excavation site past Mt. Nibel first. You've been putting it off, and you know you need to get yourself organized. Go down to the basement for lunch if you must go._ Natalie sighed as she stood and left the room. She did pause at the Shinra Mansion gate, but she forced herself to move on down the trail.

Natalie shook her head with a sigh. She had always dreamed some dashing and rich history enthusiast would snatch her up and take her away to his castle, or island, or whatever he called home. Other years she had dreamed of marrying a love-starved soldier, convinced she could heal his heart if given the proper chance. Then of course there had been the overwhelming desire to be swept off her feet by a superhero type of man. The kind that chose a simple life with her though he could have had anything he wanted by snapping his fingers and winking.

_Oh brother._

There had been so many fantasies... But the dream that had remained the longest time had been the one of finding Vincent. No one else had seemed to care about him. _If they had, would he still have been buried in the basement of a building no one wants?_ She pressed her lips together. _But now that I've found him, how do I get him out of that infernal box? I don't want to drive him insane by visiting him each and every day. And I certainly don't want him to believe telling me 'Go' will make me run along like a good little girl. After all, he was a Turk once. He'll respect gumption more than sighs and fluttering lashes._

Natalie did sigh. She stuffed her hands into the pockets of her jeans as she continued toward Mt. Nibel.

But Natalie's trip to the excavation site proved pointless. She finished a basic outline of the area, and she had enough presence of mind to organize a pair of dig sites, but other than that... Now she found herself back at the gate of Shinra Mansion with a picnic basket in one hand and a thermos in the other. _A picnic with a coffin?_ Natalie rolled her eyes as she pushed through the gate.

She navigated her way down the cobbled walkway, through the empty entryway, up the stairs to the second story, through the room on the right wing, and into the room with the 'secret entrance' to the spiral staircase. She pressed on the appropriate switch to open the door, carefully descended the rickety wooden stairs, and then made her way down the earthy hallway to the sturdy wooden door of the room where Vincent Valentine had been hidden away.

Natalie took in a deep breath as she reached out to open the door. The rusted, rotten, and rickety door that represented Shinra's disdain for the value of a human life. It creaked open. She slipped inside and pushed the door closed, leaning back against the rough surface before pushing herself forward. His coffin was still closed tight, and Natalie decided to leave it that way. _At least until he's more familiar with me. Then I'll try again._

"I needed to get away from people for a while so... I brought tuna-fish for lunch." Natalie set the basket on the ground a few feet from the coffin and knelt to pull out her sandwich. "I have extra if you want." Natalie grimaced and gave a shake of her head. Then she shrugged her shoulders and looked around the bleak room, washing down a bite of sandwich with the grape juice from the inn's kitchen. Natalie looked down at the thermos lid-cup with a wrinkle of her nose. "Not as tart as I like, but I suppose it's better than water."

Natalie set down her sandwich and gestured behind her. "A lot of people say this basement should be closed off. They say it's a danger." She shrugged. "I like it. Of course, I'm used to being around old houses and tombs. I guess that's what this reminds me of." Natalie sipped more grape juice from her thermos lid-cup, examining his coffin from the corner of her eyes. "You would tell me if I started annoying you, wouldn't you?"

Silence.

"No one has accused me of talking too much," she informed him as she set down the cup. "Then again, the social aspect of a relationship was never my reason for being near people. They were team members helping me uncover a mystery. That was always the extent of the relationship."

Natalie leaned back on her hands, stretching her legs out in front of her. "I worked hard at cataloguing and deciphering what we unearthed that week. Or I read up on the most recent discovery of Professor Gast regarding the Ancients and the Promised Land. Or I researched Hojo's latest 'breakthrough' in the realm of genetic engineering. And there was always an article being prepared for publication in the local scientific digest - Shinra-owned of course. There was never time for socialization, fraternization, or anything even remotely similar." Natalie shrugged. "None of them ever offered to meet after hours, so I guess it wasn't entirely my fault."

Natalie cleared her throat. "Of course, I don't believe I would have taken the opportunity even if they had. People and I generally don't do well together. Whether it's my tendency towards tactlessness or a dislike of speaking in front of strangers I don't know. Writing articles, essays, or the like is much easier for me. I usually don't know what to say to an actual person. Unless I have notes there in front of me, of course."

Natalie stared at the toes of her boots, occasionally sparing a glance to his coffin. She released a deep breath. "I'm sorry, Vincent. All the way here I kept telling myself it wasn't the brightest idea, but the voice of reason seldom sways my mind in anything. So here I am, annoying you with my twitter while not allowing you a moment of peace."

Natalie sat up and began packing up her picnic. "I haven't received any responses to the invitations I sent to your friends." Natalie slowly placed her thermos into the basket. "Have you... Have you thought about the possibility of giving me an interview?" She raised her gaze to the coffin. "If you would rather do a private interview before the others arrive, I can arrange that. If not, I'll be in my room at the inn most of the day, although I do need to go to the ruins by Mt. Nibel. Organizing and planning, you understand. You're more than welcome to stop by whenever you have a free moment; at either Mt. Nibel or my room at the inn. That way I could at least let you know when everyone is planning on coming."

Natalie took hold of her basket and stood. "I might not be back until day after tomorrow, preparing for the interview you see, but I will try and drop in to at least say 'hi'. It sounds ridiculous, I know, but I like it down here."

Natalie sent the coffin a wistful look. She gave herself a mental shake. _Come on, Nat. Walk out of here without being melodramatic._ So she did. Natalie turned for the door, closing it behind her after whispering, "I'll be back, Vincent. Sleep well."

Out of the basement, up the staircase, and out of the Mansion she went, all the while with a gloomy feeling nagging at her normal lighthearted attitude. Being away for a few days would be good. Impatience had always been her virtue, and that would never go over well with Vincent Valentine. Natalie lightly bit her lower lip, pausing at the gate to look back over her shoulder toward the Mansion. Then she released a deep breath and headed toward the inn with a shake of her head. She didn't notice the sudden appearance of a shadow at the second story window that positioned itself to watch her.


	3. Romantic Interludes

**.: III -- Romantic Interludes :.**

Natalie found herself staring at the ceiling of her room again very early the next morning. The few questions she'd scratched onto a somewhat trail-worn piece of paper the previous night were the last things on her mind as they sat forgotten on the table across the room. Instead, Natalie desperately tried to design the best way to persuade Vincent Valentine out of his coffin.

_All these years... I can't just let that slip away. Can I?_ Natalie covered her face with her hands as she released a deep sigh. It was his life; therefore, it was his choice. That choice had been given. Now Natalie had to wait, and that was what she hated.

Natalie dropped her hands to her sides with another sigh. Then she sat up and dressed, moving from her room without even looking at the list of questions for the interview. She retraced her steps from inn to Mansion to basement without a thought. Then she opened the door of Vincent's sanctuary, closing it very slowly and very softly as she rested her forehead against it. She didn't notice a slight shift of the coffin lid.

Natalie released a very deep breath before turning to lean against the door of the room. She crossed her arms as she examined the black box he called home. "I can't believe I'm having a romantic interlude with a coffin," she mumbled. Natalie shook her head. She'd always been accused of being a little on the odd side. _But a coffin?_ Natalie chuckled.

"Good morning, Vincent," she greeted, and she immediately grimaced. "I know, I know. It's way too early to be down here." She stepped forward, clasping her hands behind her back. "I told you I like it down here. It's quiet and reminds me of the places I've excavated. Places where I felt comfortable. Where I truly felt safe enough to be myself." She smiled. "I guess it's the coffin. Maybe that's why it's so easy to talk to you."

Natalie sat at the foot of the coffin, tucking her knees to her chin. "I just needed some quiet time before the people start moving around town. That and I've been stressing about the interview. It will help that they're your friends, but it will still involve conversations with live people. Not my favorite thing..."

Natalie cleared her throat and adjusted her arms around her legs as she released a deep breath. "I really am sorry about this, Vincent. I don't want to bother you."

Silence settled over the room, but it wasn't an uncomfortable stillness. It was simple and innocent, and it settled Natalie's nervousness.

Natalie dropped her gaze as she began to rock back and forth. "I used to do this all the time when I was a regular at top-secret archeological digs." She released a slow breath as her memories resurfaced. "The Cetra burial rooms were so simple and lovely. A person could tell that great care had gone to the arrangement and design of every facet of the tomb. The crypts were so full of detail that it was impossible not to see these people were gifted in every way. They knew where they would go when they passed out of this existence, and they chose to celebrate the going."

Natalie smiled. "Let me know if I start running off at the mouth. Talking about archaeology always gets me going. It's a passion I usually don't share with anyone. I mean, I guess it sounds a bit odd to be so enthralled with an extinct race. Telling someone that I would find myself at the tomb several times a day sounds a bit over the deep end. At least, that's what I assume from the looks I get. But I couldn't help just gazing at the creativity within those Cetra tombs and temples. It inspired me to stretch out and delve deeper into what interested me. Their passion seemed to influence those in direct contact with them."

Natalie looked up at the coffin. "They were such an interesting people. You could tell by the work they left behind. It's gorgeous. Not only that, it's so... calming. I felt safe in those tombs, so I would talk for hours on whatever bothered me. That time helped me make decisions I otherwise wouldn't have been able to make. They helped me simply by being there. I guess that's why I'm here now."

_That and I want to spend as much time here as possible because I doubt you'll come out._

Natalie cleared her throat. "I really miss those days of being able to talk about whatever came to mind. Lately I've been so busy researching Hojo's experiments that I've been keeping things inside. It's been a little stressful. Thanks for being here for me to talk to. I know you haven't exactly had a choice in the matter, but I wanted to thank you anyway."

She looked down with a sigh. "I suppose I should go. I've still got a lot of work to do to get ready for the interviews. I've heard from Barret, Cid, and Nanaki, but no one else. At least, not yet." She stood and made her way to the door, giving another glance toward the coffin before closing the door with a slow, deep breath and a whispered, "I'll see you later."

Natalie made her way out of the Mansion, slowly meandering toward the inn on the far side of Nibelheim.

"Excuse me? Are you Natalie Long?"

Natalie looked up from her intense scrutiny of her hiking boots. A somewhat tall woman with a tone physique and long brunette hair approached. The woman's buxom figure made Natalie self-conscious about her own more slender structure. _Oh well._ Natalie reached out to accept the woman's outstretched hand. "I am. What can I do for you?"

"I'm Tifa Lockhart. I got a message you wanted to do some sort of interview."

Natalie's face brightened. "Oh! Yes. Come with me. I have a room at the inn where we can be comfortable and get all this stuff out of the way. Have you eaten?"

"Yes. Thanks." Tifa fell into step beside Natalie. "What kind of interview?"

"Regarding the planet. You and the others have done some incredible work, and I wanted to start marking the progress."

"That would be more Red or Barret's department. Have you gotten an interview set up with them?"

"Barret, yes. Last evening, in fact. But Red?" Natalie frowned. "I don't know. The name doesn't sound familiar."

"He's a... err... Well, he looks a lot like a... um... His grandfather was one of the Elders in Cosmo Canyon. Bugenhagen."

"Oh! Nanaki." Natalie nodded as she opened the door of the inn to usher Tifa inside. "Yes. He's coming tomorrow afternoon. So are Barret and Cid."

"Man. You've got the whole gang coming."

"Not really. I couldn't get a hold of Yuffie or Reeve. I haven't heard anything from Cloud, either."

Tifa flushed. "Cloud's coming to Nibelheim later this week, if you don't mind waiting. He just had to pack up some of his stuff that was at Aeris'. I don't know where Yuffie went. I suppose you already checked Wutai."

Natalie led Tifa upstairs to her room. "Yes. No one seems to know where she is. That's all right, though. I'll likely have enough information from the others." Natalie gestured to the table set up in the middle of the room. "Make yourself comfortable." She retrieved her pen and paper - computers being banned until an environmentally safe power source could be found - and made a few notes on the page. "I appreciate this, Ms. Lockhart."

She laughed. "Call me Tifa."

Natalie smiled back at her. "Thank you. I will."

And Natalie was amazed at how comfortable she was talking with this stranger. _I wonder if Vincent felt the same?_ It was definitely an interesting question. One that she wished she could ask. Natalie cleared her throat and tapped her pen on the paper, fighting the urge to both think of and ask about Vincent. _Nat, you better focus or the interview is going to be a disaster._

"All right. Now, could you maybe outline exactly what you and the others have planned to bring the planet back to normal."

Tifa leaned her forearms on the table. "Like I said before, Red's the big planner. We just do what he and Barret tell us to."

_I wonder how involved Vincent is or was--_ Natalie pushed the thoughts away with an almost visible motion. "Could you give me some examples?"

"Examples? You mean of what they tell us to do?"

Natalie gave a nod, still grappling with her focus. "Exactly."

"Well..." Tifa cupped her chin in her hand as she slightly frowned. "Let's see. They told us to gather all the Materia we'd been using and put it in the Lifestream for one."

_Vincent had spent so much time around Materia because of his time with Shinra; he probably hated to see it go--_ Natalie frowned a little as she nodded her head and jotted some stuff on the paper. "Go on."

"Then we gathered a bunch of seedlings from the church where Aeris lived and planted them in the most fertile areas around Midgar."

_I wonder if Vincent helped with any of the flowers? No, probably not. He doesn't seem the gardener type..._ Natalie sighed, setting down her pen to rub her forehead.

"What's wrong?"

Natalie shook her head as she leaned back in the chair, focusing her eyes on Tifa's concerned expression. "I'm sorry. It seems I'm not ready to do this right now."

"I can come back with the others. It is kind of early."

Tifa made a move to stand, but Natalie stopped her. "Wait. Can I ask you a question about someone?"

"Sure."

"It's about Vincent."

Tifa raised an eyebrow. "Vincent? What about him?"

"You know he's in the basement of Shinra Mansion. Right?"

"I figured that's where he went. After all, that's where we found him." Natalie didn't say anything, and Tifa tilted her head. "He's alright, isn't he?"

"That's what I had hoped you could tell me." Natalie picked at a fingernail. "Has he always been hidden away like that? Does he never come out?"

"Well, he felt responsible for a lot of things, and sleeping in the coffin was his way of punishing himself. When we asked for his help, he only did it because it was another way to make things right. I don't understand why he still feels like he has to punish himself. Hojo was the one responsible. Of course, we never did understand Vincent. He stayed so quiet about his personal life."

Natalie lowered her eyes. "I noticed."

Tifa stood, smoothing some imaginary wrinkles from her tight jeans. "Did you want to do this tomorrow, or when Red and Cid get here?"

"I suppose we should wait until the others arrive. That would be easiest." Natalie sent Tifa a small smile. "I appreciate it."

"Don't worry about it. I'll see you later." And Tifa left the room.

Natalie stood and made her way to the window that looked out on the well in the center of Nibelheim. _Snap out of it, Nat. This isn't like you at all. Come on! Pull yourself together!_ She took in a slow breath and released it slower, then again, and again. _That's better. Now why don't you take a moment and relax._ Natalie pulled a book off the shelf from the bookcase beside the window. She made her way to her bed.

"DNA Alteration and the Jenova Project by Professor Hojo." Natalie sighed deeply, lowering herself onto the bed. "And this is to help me relax?"

Natalie sighed, slamming the book closed as she laid back. She brought an arm up to cover her eyes._ You're just tired. Take a nap._ She turned onto her side, wrapping her arms around herself as she let her mind fade to the dreams that would take her where she did and did not want to go...

...Natalie took in a deep breath before opening the door. She didn't look at his coffin as she entered the room. _I can't. I know what he'll say. If he does... How am I going to say no? _Instead, she kept her back toward the room as she closed the door. Both palms rested on the cold wood once it had clicked shut. She stood there for several moments, wanting him to come closer... wanting him to stay in the coffin... _Why couldn't this have been easier? Why did it have to happen like this?_

"You seem upset. What is it?" a gentle baritone voice asked.

"Nothing."

Natalie heard the rustle of the cape as he moved from where he leaned against his crypt. _Oh dear God. He's coming closer. I can't. Don't, Vincent. Please_-- He gently took hold of her arms to turn her to face him, lifting her chin with a finger. She held his eyes and he... _smiled_? Her insides went numb, and her knees weakened as a flash shot out from her soul to each and every corner of her body.

"You look lovely today."

"Th-Thank you." She continued to look up into his glowing red eyes, her firm resolution fading fast. "Vincent, we need to talk."

He raised an eyebrow. "About?"

"About us."

"Ah. Us." Vincent caressed her cheek. Natalie's throat tightened. "And what needs to be said that has such fear glowing in those lovely green eyes?"

"I can't see you anymore."

His eyes twinkled with amusement as his lips tilted in the caress of another smile. "You've said that before, and yet you always come. Why are you so afraid of me?" Vincent examined her expression with those seductive amber eyes that seemed to see everything. "I see. You're afraid of yourself."

Natalie pulled away to walk toward the coffin, her arms around her. "It just wouldn't work, Vincent. I care about you, yes, but..."

He waited a moment before prompting "But what?" as he moved closer.

Her arms tightened. "I don't know. I'm just so afraid."

Vincent caressed her neck with his finger before he brought his lips to her ear. "It's all right to be afraid."

She shook her head as she attempted to turn away again, but he held her in a firm yet tender grasp. When he turned her toward him, his expression was painfully clear in meaning. He leaned toward her to caress her lips with his.

"I've been waiting for someone," Vincent whispered. "Don't leave me."

Natalie closed her eyes with a soft whimper, wrapping her arms around his neck as the kiss deepened--

Natalie jerked to a sitting position with a choked sob, bringing her hands up to cover her face. The dream had come before, but it had never been so clear. His eyes had never been so real. His face had never been so defined and expressive. _Oh,_ she groaned, _why did you have to find him? The fantasies and dreams would have faded if you hadn't done that!_ Her determination had become her torturer.

Natalie sniffed, wiping the tears from her face before pushing herself off the bed. She made her way to the window, crossing her arms as she stared toward Shinra Mansion. _I know it's impossible. I know it's foolish. I know it's pathetic and God knows what else, but it's happened. I've let myself get emotionally involved with a research project..._ She winced. _Project, Nat? Don't start distancing yourself from him now. It won't change the fact you care. That's foolishness, and you know it. You're gone for him. All he would have to do is smile and you'd rip off your clothes and offer to have his baby._

Natalie lowered her head with a reluctant smile. She doubted she would ever be that ridiculous, but it felt better to laugh at herself than bawl her head off.


	4. The Interview

**.: IV -- The Interview :.**

The following day Natalie gave herself explicit instructions to stay in her room and outline questions and allowable tangents for the interview. Considering her distraction level due to the poignant clarity of the previous day's dream, that turned out to be quite a feat. Lunch was delivered and then the door remained firmly closed, as did her mind in regards to any thoughts on Vincent Valentine.

The day of the interview, Natalie set out extra chairs, made sure she had plenty of pens and paper, tracked down her list of questions for the different people scheduled to be there that day, and then sat back with a collection of science and archaeology magazines as she waited for them to arrive. Natalie found herself hoping they were all as easy to talk to as Tifa.

She had heard bad things about Barret, everyone on the planet knew he'd been the leader of the anti-Shinra group AVALANCHE, but she wasn't one to make harsh judgments. _I always try to give everyone the benefit of the doubt. It's easier._ Her thoughts drifted to Vincent for the first time in nearly 36 hours. _In some ways more than others._

There was a crash. Natalie looked up sharply as the magazine she read slipped from her fingers to the floor. A man with spiked blonde hair knelt over a broken vase, quickly picking up the pieces to put them into a nearby trashcan.

"You nearly scared me to death," she scolded as she stood.

The man looked over at her with a guilty expression. "Sorry about that. I caught it with my scabbard." He finished picking up the glass shards and slowly straightened, offering her his hand when he stepped forward. "The name's Cloud. Strife. I heard you were looking for me."

Natalie shook his hand with an expression of surprise. "Tifa said you wouldn't be here for a couple more days."

Cloud smiled. "She doesn't know I'm here yet. It's a surprise."

"Oh." Natalie gestured to one of the many chairs situated around her small table. "Have a seat. We can start now if you like."

"Could we wait?"

Natalie nodded. "That's fine. It doesn't matter to me." _I'm still up here when I really want to be in a musty old basement. What does it matter to me if we wait or not?_

Cloud sat in one of the chairs, kicking it back to prop his feet on the table. "So, do you like doing these kinds of things?"

"Interviews?" Natalie grimaced as she sat in the chair opposite him. "No." _I like basements and coffins and things that have been forgotten._

Cloud watched her expression. "Then why do them?"

Natalie shrugged. "Science sometimes demands we do what we don't want to. Besides, I'm hoping the article will sell well. I need the gil." Natalie cleared her throat. She felt so much like she actually used the interview to find information about Vincent that she knew he wouldn't tell her himself.

Cloud smiled. "There myself once. That's how I got involved with Barret in the first place. Gil. He had it. I needed it. He needed help. Bam! Volunteered for a job blowing up a reactor."

"It certainly sounds exciting, if a little dangerous." _Vincent would have loved it._

Cloud shrugged. "I didn't really care about the danger, but I'm glad it's over. The most dangerous thing I have to worry about these days is a paper cut." He smiled. "And pissing Tifa off."

Natalie's mind groaned to a halt. "You two are... together?"

"For now."

She arched an eyebrow. "What do you mean?"

"I don't want to sound possessive or anything by saying a firm 'yes', even though that's the only way I want it to be. I want to give her a choice. You know? She's still her own person. I mean, don't get me wrong. I'm committed. I don't have any plans to go cruising the countryside with some other girl. I just don't want her to think I'm making her choose me over her own freedom. We've both gone through a lot together. It's just natural we'd end up here." He smiled. "I hoped we would."

Natalie looked down at her paper with an absent nod. "That's wonderful." _Sickeningly so._

"Who else we expecting?"

"Nanaki. Barret. Tifa, obviously. Cid." Natalie looked at her list. _Vincent._

"What about Vincent? I haven't heard from him since we won against Sephiroth."

Natalie's grip tightened on her pen. "I don't know about him or Yuffie. I couldn't get in contact with her."

"And Vincent?" Cloud asked again. "You know he's right here at Shinra Mansion, don't you?"

Natalie nodded, and she could feel the blood drain from her face. "Yes. Yes, I knew that." _He doesn't acknowledge that I exist but yes, I knew._

"Did you send him the invite? Did you want me to do it for you? He doesn't talk much, but we got along pretty good together."

_I'm sure you thought so, but did he?_ Natalie gave him a reluctant smile. "No. It's all right. I think I have enough to handle with the five of you." _I need the time away from him. You wouldn't understand, but that's all right._

"Just wondering."

"Hello, Cloud. It's nice to see you after such a long time."

Natalie and Cloud looked toward the door.

"Hey there, Red. How've you been?" Cloud asked, smiling.

Nanaki, the lion-like creature fondly known as Red, came to sit beside Cloud. He tucked his tail around his forepaws. "Quite well, thank you. Yourself?"

"Keeping busy." Cloud gestured to Natalie. "This is Natalie Long. Natalie, this is Red... err... Nanaki."

"Hello," Natalie said with a big smile toward the beautiful creature. She had to fight the urge to scratch behind his velvety soft ears. "It's very nice to finally meet you. I've read all your articles, as well as those of your grandfather. Brilliant. Fascinating."

Red nodded his head, and he almost seemed to smile at her. "Thank you very much."

"Sorry I'm late."

Cloud stood, sending Tifa a grin. "Surprise."

"Cloud!" Tifa rushed into the room to throw herself forward and envelop him in a hug, which quite nearly made them both topple backward. "I thought you weren't going to be here until the end of the week!"

Natalie lowered her eyes as her throat constricted.

"I packed faster." Cloud pulled back and urged her to take his seat, which she did. "I guess it's just Barret and Cid now."

"No, its just Barret."

They all looked to the entrance of the quickly filling room to send the ruggedly handsome engineer a smile. He took a puff of his cigarette while he swaggered in. He threw himself into the nearest chair, which happened to be beside Natalie.

She offered a hand. "Hello, Mr. Highwind. My name's Natalie Long. I'm doing the interview."

"Well I didn't think any of these #$& numbskulls would be doing it," he retorted as he firmly shook it.

Natalie blinked in surprise at the foul language, but the others just laughed. She smiled and released his hand, somehow at ease among these strangers that were close friends. _If I feel this way, how much more had Vincent?_ _He spent weeks and months with them in order to save the planet._

"I really appreciate your time. All of you."

"It's no problem," Cid said gruffly.

The others repeated much the same sentiment.

Natalie looked to her questions while tapping her lips with her pen. "All right. I suppose we might as well begin. There's no point making you all wait. I'm sure Mr. Barret will be here as soon as he can." _And Vincent?_

Cloud sat in the chair beside Tifa, kicking back and draping one of his arms along the back of her chair. Every so often he would caress her back with a solitary finger. "Don't bet on it. He's been awfully busy getting everybody situated with enough seedlings and starter plants. He could've forgotten about the whole thing."

Tifa laughed. "Cloud, come on. Barret forget a responsibility? That would be like Yuffie forgetting where a stash of Materia was in the old days."

"Hey. There's a first time for everything."

They all conceded the point with a laugh and then talked amongst themselves as they relived a myriad of past adventures with "do you remember when"s and "wasn't it funny when"s. Natalie watched them interact with one another. _How did Vincent react to all these different types of people? Did he feel lost? Did he feel overwhelmed? Did he feel accepted? _There were so many questions she wanted to ask about the lonely soul hidden in a distant basement.

"What exactly is your plan?" Natalie finally asked.

They all looked at her. "Plan?"

"For rescuing the planet," she added. "What's the plan? Anyone?"

They all exchanged glances as if to ask 'who first' before Red cleared his throat with a husky purr. "It's not necessarily a plan, per say, but the only course of action we see available."

"How did you know what to do?"

"It was kind of simple," Tifa spoke up timidly. "Mako and Materia were actually the planet's life. Once we knew that, it seemed obvious we needed to give it back. That's why we put it in the Lifestream."

"And the machinery?" Natalie asked Cid.

"Machinery before used Mako. It's my job to find out how to make them use either solar energy or something else, just as long as it doesn't detract from the planet's energy or poison the atmosphere." He grumbled under his breath a moment or two. "I tell ya, I don't have many #&$# options open to me at the moment."

Natalie restrained a smile at the outburst. _I wonder what Vincent's reaction was to you, Mr. Highwind. You more than likely gave him no end of amusement._ "Have any of you noticed any changes in the ecosystem?"

"Yeah," Cloud said. "The sky's different. The grass is greener, too. And there seem to be more animals around then before."

"The kids look healthier," Tifa volunteered.

Natalie nodded. "Yes. I've noticed that. The people have a healthier, more positive attitude." _Maybe Vincent just needs time?_

"Of course," said a loud voice. "They've got damn good air to breathe!"

All of them turned, giving Barret an enthusiastic greeting as he stomped into the room with his adopted daughter, Marlene, on his shoulders.

"I'm so glad you could make it Mister--"

"The name's Barret," he interrupted.

Natalie nodded as she offered him her seat. He declined and, instead, leaned against the bookcase after depositing Marlene on the bed.

"So let's get this interview moving," he barked. "I've got a lot of work to do, and there's no stopping this train we're on."

They all laughed, and Natalie surrendered to another smile.


	5. Profound Hellos

**.: V -- A Profound 'hello' :.**

Natalie leaned out the window as far as possible in order to catch a glimpse of Shinra Mansion. It had now been two full days since her last visit. She'd been working as fast as possible in order to finish the bulk of the article, planning to visit the Mansion as soon as she considered it more than 75 done. Thankfully, she had put the finishing touches on the rough draft that morning.

Natalie turned to hurry from the room, a silly sense of expectation and anticipation making her heart flutter as she rushed down the stairs. She took the picnic lunch ordered that morning and rushed outdoors. The sun shone, and it must have been the loveliest day in Natalie's memory.

Natalie smiled, pausing long enough to take in a deep breath before turning and briskly walking toward the Mansion. She nodded to the locals on the way and then pushed through the gate to hurry inside. The Mansion had become a part of her daily routine. A place to rest and relax. Natalie smiled wider as she hurried upstairs to the room that held the 'hidden' passage to the spiral stairway. She pushed it open and headed down, rushing as much as possible. When she arrived at the door to Vincent's sanctuary, she pushed it open with a smile. Everything looked blissfully old and decrepit.

Natalie closed the door behind her and set the picnic basket on the floor to her right. "Good afternoon, Vincent. It seems like forever and a day since I made it down here last." Natalie pulled a rolled up blanket from the top of the basket as she spoke, moving to spread it in the middle of the room nearest his coffin. "A couple times I thought I would crawl out of my skin if I didn't get away from the people and the article, but I pushed through. I'm glad I did, too. The rough draft is done now, and I can breathe easier."

Natalie sat, positioning the basket in front of her. "It's the organization of an essay or article that kills me. Tendency to ramble, you know. Once I finish that rough draft, it's smooth sailing." She retrieved her thermos. "Oh, and I think I've decided to buy this Mansion. My article is bound to bring in enough gil to cover the down payment. The thought of this building being torn down brings me near tears. I know it wouldn't take much to fix it up. I would do it myself except I don't know the first thing about construction. I'm more of a destruction type. You know? Understand how something was built by taking it apart? That way it's easier to understand the people that built it."

Natalie smiled as she reached forward to unpack her usual tuna sandwich. "The safest idea for this Mansion would be to hire someone." She took a bite of her sandwich and then pointed at Vincent's coffin with it. "Don't you think the people of Nibelheim will be willing to sell it at a reasonable price? It's becoming a bit of an eyesore, unfortunately. That surprised me, too. I mean," she swallowed, "this building has a lot of potential. It could be a school, or a clinic, or even a research facility."

Silence continued, and it didn't settle very well with Natalie's appetite. She adjusted her hold on her sandwich, staring down at it as she released a deep breath.

"The interview went well," she said after clearing her throat. "Your friends are really easy to talk to, which surprised me. I've never been good at things of that sort." Natalie chuckled. "Oh I know I talk your ear off, but that's different. You're in there. I'm out here. Besides, we have a few things in common. Perhaps that helps."

Natalie put her sandwich away. "And we both knew Lucrecia. I don't think I told you that. I didn't know her that well, but I could tell I would have liked her. We never really had an opportunity to talk. She was usually busy with something for Shinra." Natalie frowned as she picked at the blanket. "Shinra. I am so glad Rufus and his father got burned. They were asses both!" She sighed. "Although I suppose I shouldn't swear."

"Why not?"

Natalie looked up with a gasp. Vincent hovered midair above the coffin. "H-Hi." _Smooth, Nat. Real smooth._

Vincent watched her for a long and silent moment before gracefully descending to stand opposite her. She offered him her sandwich, but he shook his head. Instead, Vincent sat across from her while Natalie watched in shock and horror. Her fantasy was coming true, and she handled it less than gracefully.

Vincent continued to examine her with his piercing red eyes. "I was under the impression you didn't work for Shinra."

Natalie blinked. _He listened?_ She flushed, lowering her eyes as she set her sandwich on its plate yet again. _Breathe, Nat. Breathe and you'll be fine._ "They funded the digs I worked. They always did have their fingers in as many pies as possible." Natalie raised her eyes in time to see his expression change.

"Then how did you know Lucrecia?"

Natalie cleared her throat. "She was the best friend of my high-school teacher's sister." She grimaced with a slight and reluctant chuckle. "I know. It sounds quite the adventurous involvement." Natalie shrugged. "My teacher always told us about things Lucrecia was involved in. I think one of the highlights of my day was hearing her latest adventure. Lucrecia had the life I wanted. She was actively involved in research. She could study whatever she wished... That was what I wanted to have as soon as I was out of school." Natalie sighed. "I wish we could have talked."

Vincent remained silent as his eyes examined her face with an intensity that made her uncomfortable.

Natalie gnawed on her lower lip. "That was how I first heard of you."

Vincent's eyebrow twitched.

"The stories my teacher told fascinated me," she confessed, "so I did more research. That's when I found out about Hojo and his experiments with DNA manipulation and alteration, which is what I believe he did to you. I dug out as many articles as I could on Hojo and his experiments, until I discovered the information about this Mansion and the basement..." Something in his expression changed, and Natalie nibbled at her bottom lip with guilt. "I wanted to meet you so badly that I didn't consider whether or not you wanted visitors. I'm sorry. I never meant to invade your privacy."

"Why would you want to meet me?"

Natalie sent him a haphazard smile. "Call me a romantic."

"Why?"

Natalie couldn't help but laugh. "And I thought I asked a lot of questions." He didn't say anything. Natalie continued, still smiling. "You're a mystery, and I've always loved mysteries. That's what I do. Not only that, you're a bit of a tortured soul, you know."

His expression seemed to blacken.

Natalie's smile quivered and died. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to plow over you like a bulldozer. Like I said before, I haven't been around people much. Well, actually I have. It's just been different than socializing. Speaking of that, did you want to come see the new fossils they've discovered? They haven't done any of the equipment set up, that's not due to be done for another couple of days, so it should be rather quiet." _Nat! You're rambling--_

"How do you understand what Hojo did to me?"

Natalie blinked as she shut off the vocal section of her brain in order to process the question and give an intelligent answer. Then she shrugged and looked away from his face to pour herself another glass of grape juice. "That's kind of hard to say, but only because I don't know how to explain it. Whenever I didn't understand an article, I pulled the reports and articles they researched and read them myself. Then, if they were a matter of record, I would pull the itemized notes that followed their experiments - but that didn't happen very often. Most of the time it just clicked; like a collection of puzzle pieces falling into place."

"Is it reversible?"

Natalie swallowed several mouthfuls of her juice before answering. "I've often asked myself that same question. Only I haven't had enough experience to know one way or the other. Besides, DNA manipulation is still so experimental that I don't dare hazard a guess. My specialty was always historic, not genetic or cellular."

_Put aside the fact that I figured out what Hojo did, I would never discover the way to put you back to normal._

"I don't have the expertise, the research ability, or the field experience." Natalie sighed as she twirled the glass in her hands. "I wish I could say 'yes' with any amount of truth or certainty, but I can't. I wouldn't want to lie to you."

"In other words, you've thought of the possibility before."

She nodded. "Yes. Many times. Like I said before, your entire history fascinated me. The minute I found out what Hojo had done, I toyed with the idea of changing you back again. Only problem is, I don't have the facility for experimentation that Hojo did. I doubt I ever will now that Shinra is wiped off the face of the planet. No other place had their type of advanced equipment."

"That isn't true."

Natalie looked up to meet his guarded amber eyes. "What do you mean?"

"Shinra had a laboratory in the basement of this Mansion. Cloud will know where it is."

Natalie blinked. "A laboratory? Here? Really?" She smiled, and her green eyes twinkled. "I've always dreamed of having my own lab." Something akin to amusement flickered across Vincent's face for the briefest instant. Natalie flushed. "I know I'm making a fool of myself, but I've had an idea of something that might work. Can you imagine my frustration when I couldn't try it out? For you to say there's a lab... I can't even begin to describe my excitement!"

"An idea?"

Natalie's excitement faded. "Oops. I didn't mean to say that." She waved her hands at him. "It was just a silly notion I had once. One of my crazy romantic imaginings of grandeur and heroic rescue." She slouched and lowered her eyes. "Just great. Now I've raised your hopes."

"Hope? Why would I believe there was hope for me?"

Natalie looked up to try and gauge his expression. It was just as distant as when she'd first seen him. "How-- Never mind. Um.. If you-- Never mind that either." Natalie bit her lower lip, and then she stood. He watched her, but made no move to stand. "Cloud and Tifa are walking around Mt. Nibel today and won't be back until later this evening. Would you help me find the lab? I want to see exactly what I'm looking at in expenses for getting it up and running."

Vincent remained seated a moment more, and then he gracefully stood. "Yes."

"Are you sure you don't mind?"

"Yes."

Natalie smiled. "I appreciate it." She made a move to pack up the picnic, but then shook her head. "Never mind that," she told Vincent with a smile - though he hadn't made a move to pick it up either. "I'll come back later hungrier than anything, more than likely. It's always a mystery that makes me hungry enough to eat a chocobo." Natalie turned for the door and stepped out, moving aside for Vincent to have room to stand beside her. "Which way?"

He gestured to the left. "It isn't far."

Vincent was about to take a step forward when Natalie stopped him with a hand on his left arm. He turned to face her with an expression of surprise. "Sorry," Natalie said as she quickly removed her hand, but she continued with her train of thought. "Are you absolutely certain you don't mind? This might have been where Hojo did his experiments on you and... If it causes a problem for you at all, I will wait until Cloud gets back and ask him. It's not a problem. I've waited this long. A few more hours won't hurt."

It seemed the briefest flash of emotion exploded across Vincent's face. It made Natalie wonder a little more about the past she hadn't been able to discover via the reading of experimentation reports, interviews, and assistants' journal entries. _What exactly did you go through, Vincent? What exactly happened to make you the way you are? Why are you this tortured soul?_ These questions had fascinated Natalie for years. These were the pieces she'd longed to uncover so that she could fix something, anything, about him.

Vincent remained silent, so Natalie smiled. "If I'm going too far in the caution department of our relationship, it's only because I'm concerned for your feelings. I've never been experimented on, Vincent, but I can appreciate the tenderness of it."

Vincent blinked and looked away. "It doesn't matter. It's in the past."

"Sometimes the past is all we have." Vincent looked again toward her, examining her features. Natalie looked down. "Sorry. I did it again." She tucked her hands into the pockets of her jeans. "I have a tendency of being about as subtle as a Midgar Zolom."

"I doubt that's possible."

Natalie peeked at him out of the corner of her eye. "Was that a sense of humor I just heard?" Vincent didn't answer, so Natalie went on. "Hm. Well whether it was or wasn't, why would you say that? I'm just curious. You haven't actually seen one, have you?"

"As a matter of fact--"

Natalie's eyes widened. "Wow. I've heard and read about them, even seen pictures, but... Really? You've seen one?"

"I fought one."

Natalie paled. "I can see you survived, but how in the world did you do it? They're downright vicious."

"No match for the three of us."

"The three of you?"

"Cloud and Aeris. I would not fight one alone."

_Why not? You do everything else by yourself._ Natalie cleared her throat. "I guess I didn't really think about it. Boy. You had me just a little bit by the neck, didn't you?" The amusement lasted longer this time, and she couldn't help but smile. "You did it on purpose. Don't tell me I'm going to have to examine everything you say. That's going to be exhausting." _Not to mention fun, exciting, and absolutely pathetic._ "Why in the world did you three go against one of those?"

"We needed its skill."

"It's skill? As in what exactly?"

"The Midgar Zolom has the skill called Beta. It's a powerful elemental attack. We needed the skill for our battles against Sephiroth and Shinra."

"Did you learn it? As in, did you learn to duplicate it?"

"No." Vincent paused, and then he turned to begin down the short corridor. Natalie followed beside him. "Yes. Our Materia stored the ability, allowing us to use it later."

"Really? Interesting. I wonder how it accomplished that," Natalie mumbled absently. "It would need to have some type of sentience in order to retain the knowledge of the ability learned... I wonder. They say that Materia was part of the planet, and this would definitely be proof to that effect."

Natalie snapped her fingers. "I wish Materia wasn't taboo. I'd love to examine some. Although I suppose I should be able to learn all I need from Bugenhagen's research and Shinra's declassified reports. Hm. I should look into it." Natalie noticed Vincent had stopped outside a huge wooden door. She looked up with an arched eyebrow. "Are we here? Already?"

"I didn't want to interrupt."

"Oh." Natalie blushed. "Sorry. I have a tendency of talking out loud, as you can see. Somehow it helps me work things out. Either that or I'm just too lazy to keep my thoughts to myself. It could be both. Who knows?"

Vincent just looked down at her with those intense red eyes without saying a word. Natalie flushed a darker shade and looked away.

She reached out for the door to open it. "Well I guess we find out what's hiding behind door number one." The massive door creaked slowly open. Natalie gasped, "It's huge!" as she stepped inside.

Books by the hundreds were stacked on tables, on bookcases, and on the floor. There were notebooks and tablets filled with handwritten journal notes, video tapes in a far corner, shelves of beakers containing neatly labeled liquids, and two cylindrical holding chambers linked to one of the Shinra Corporation's best computers.

Natalie's eyes widened as she stepped forward, absently fingering a book here and there as she made her way to the computer. It purred, unaffected by the world's sudden turn from the use of Mako. When Natalie did a slight search of the surroundings of the computer, she found it had a link to it's own small Mako generator.

Natalie pulled out a dusty office chair to sit with a slow breath, caressing the keyboard with a slowly growing smile. "Technology..." she whispered. "I've missed it in the few years out in no man's land. But now... Now I have a chance to do all I wanted to do before but couldn't. I know Mako is outlawed, but this computer may be the difference between..."

Natalie peeked over at Vincent. He had gone to stand by some chambers a little way from the desk. His expression hadn't changed, but something about his attitude had. Natalie couldn't quite put her finger on it.

"Vincent?" He didn't answer, so Natalie stood and moved to stand beside him. "Are you all right?"

Vincent blinked but didn't face her. "Cloud spoke of these."

Natalie turned to examine the chambers. They were more than six feet in height and impressively high-tech. They were also filled with a type of greenish embryonic liquid. Natalie reached out a hand to touch the cylinder. It was warm.

"It looks to be an incubator of some sort, and it's still running. As if the experiment should still be here." Natalie discovered a plaque on each cylinder. "Hm. C project. Specimen (A) code Z. And this one is specimen (B) and code C. I wonder what it means." She slowly made her way to the computer again. "Well they must have kept records. I'll just take a peek and see what I can find out."

"Cloud said that he and Zack, a friend from SOLDIER, were held here and injected with Jenova cells and Mako."

"Let me guess: Hojo."

"Yes. He claimed Cloud was a clone. We have no proof he told the truth."

"Why did he have such a fascination with screwing up the lives of others?" Natalie pressed her lips together before typing furiously on the keyboard, searching and crosschecking references in order to find anything regarding the experiments that had taken place in that basement. Shinra. Cloud Strife. SOLDIER. Hojo. Jenova.

"There has to be a connection," she murmured. "Some experiment that Hojo repeated. He was always so sadistically persistent." Then she typed in the name Vincent Valentine.

**PLEASE ENTER PASSWORD**

Natalie blinked, and her fingers paused over the keyboard. "Hello. What do we have here? You're using a password, Professor? I wonder if you might possibly have a secret."

"What is it?"

Vincent came to stand behind her, and she took in a slow breath to keep her focus on the computer screen. "I typed in your name. Now the computer is asking for a password."

"Have you tried Lucrecia?"

Natalie looked over her right shoulder at him. "He wouldn't use anything so obvious, would he?"

"Perhaps." Vincent motioned to the monitor. "Try it."

Natalie shrugged and typed in the letters.

**ACCESS DENIEDPLEASE ENTER PASSWORD**

"For what it's worth," Natalie offered with another glance and a smile, "it wasn't a bad idea. I wouldn't have tried it. Any other suggestions?"

Vincent stared down at the monitor, his brows slowly lowering in a frown. "Perhaps." Then he rested a hand on the back of her chair and reached over her shoulder to type three simple letters: G - O - D.

**ACCESS GRANTEDWELCOME, PROFESSOR HOJO**

"Now that's scary," Natalie said softly. Then she cleared her throat. _And I hope to God he doesn't do that again._

"No scarier than what he bred."

Vincent turned away. Natalie's heart fell. "Where are you going?"

"I'm giving you room to work."

"You weren't in the way, Vincent." He didn't respond. He simply continued toward the door. "Will you come back? I haven't had a chance to ask you any questions."

"Yes."

Natalie stared after him. "Vincent." He halted, but didn't turn. "You don't need to leave. I could use your help."

"Perhaps later." And then he headed again toward the exit.

"All right."

Natalie watched him leave. She released a deep breath after he'd closed the door behind him. Her mind ricocheted from fantasy to real world and back again. Then she shook her head as she turned back to the computer, desperately attempting to refocus her attention. "Okay, Nat. Now's your chance to do some mystery solving and clue hunting. You've been itching for this chance, and now it's been dropped in your lap. Let's get to work."


	6. Wonderings of A Bad Temper

**.: VI -- Wonderings of A Bad Temper :.**

Vincent stared at the door. He could hear the rhythmic tapping of her fingers on the keyboard even through the solid wood. Occasionally the tapping would pause. Then it would resume at an even faster pace. '... An idea I've been toying with...' The hope that longed to bloom within fought at the restraints of his long practiced self-control, and his expression hardened as he clenched his jaw. He had told her he didn't entertain hope, but _do even I believe this?_ He and the others had battled against impossibilities too long for him not to consider this a reasonable hope.

Vincent's red eyes narrowed as he examined the door, again seeing Natalie Long's seemingly innocent face. _She knew Lucrecia..._ He turned and strode away. Vincent had fought long and hard against Sephiroth and Hojo in order to put the guilt of Lucrecia's death behind him. It was odd to be faced with another remembrance of her. _Someone who had admired her courage and intelligence. Someone who had been enthralled with what she herself had found intriguing. And yet..._

And yet, there was a fascinating difference about this stranger that had pulled him from his fitful slumber. She had plunged forward even though he had sensed her fear. The hold he had on her seemed to overpower her normal sense of self-preservation. To have such a grip over a person he'd never previously met captured his attention.

Vincent approached the door of the room that housed his coffin and halted, staring at it with a cold and hard gaze. After another brief hesitation, Vincent passed to ascend the stairs leading to the main floor of Shinra Mansion. The nightmares that had tortured him for so long had passed at the defeat of Sephiroth, and the memories he had of Lucrecia began to fade. Most hours found him staring at the cover of his self-appointed tomb while wondering what to do in order to fill the unknown remaining years of his life. Then he had heard a voice exclaim, _'Thank God! I found you! I finally found you...'_

The remembrance of the unhidden joy heard in the hushed words twisted his insides again with an unexpected agony. For someone to be so pleased to find his crypt was beyond the scope of his withered heart and imagination. Hojo had made fear the only emotion ever witnessed by him. _And yet..._

Vincent clenched his jaw before stepping out into the late afternoon sunshine. He looked up at the sky to take in a deep breath. _Yes. The effect of Sephiroth's evil dwindles._ He could sense it. Jenova's power over their planet was a mere memory, easily and eagerly forgotten.

Her voice was no longer clearly spoken in his mind.

Vincent changed his focus to the well Cloud had often mentioned in his pleasant memories of home. It yet stood, almost a beacon of hope for all who gazed at it. A continued statement that pleasant dreams were possible for them as well. He could even sense his own soul's attempt at belief. '...An idea I've been toying with...' and that was his hope.

Vincent knew he didn't deserve it, but it was there for him to take just the same. _Why shouldn't I take it?_ But his soul remained distant, testing the newfound idea with an air of feigned disdain. Hope had never before partnered itself with him. _Why should it?_ But no excuses against the idea surfaced.

Vincent clenched his jaw, almost turning back for the Mansion. The sound of familiar laughter stopped him. Cloud and Tifa approached from the path leading to Mt. Nibel. When they saw him standing at the gate, they hesitated for the briefest possible moment before hurrying to his side.

"Well would you look what the cat dragged in?" Cloud said, smiling as he clapped Vincent on the shoulder. "It's great to see you, Vincent. What brings you out?"

Vincent examined Cloud's expression with a slightly raised eyebrow. Such an emotion of happiness and laughter hadn't been seen on the young man's face very often. Mostly he'd shown a tortured expression of guilt, rage, and confusion. To see him eagerly smiling with a twinkle of nauseating delight in his Mako glowing eyes nearly sabotaged Vincent's carefully constructed calm. So he chose not to speak any kind of answer to Cloud's questions. Instead, he continued to examine Cloud and Tifa's expressions. They exchanged a guarded glance, and Vincent crossed his arms.

Tifa spoke next. "Vincent, you haven't seen a woman with curly auburn hair have you? Her name's Natalie Long, and she's a scientist doing an article on the progress the planet's made since... well, since Sephiroth was beaten."

Vincent remained quiet.

Tifa absently pulled at the hem of her short black skirt. "I was just wondering if you'd seen her. She did such a good job on the interview... I... I hoped we could get together... some time... maybe."

Cloud shook his head, smirking as he draped an arm protectively around Tifa's shoulders. "Come on, Vincent. Give us a break. Have you seen her or not? It's not like we're asking you for your personal feelings on the matter."

Vincent's eyebrow twitched before he said, "She's in the basement lab."

Cloud straightened, his arm dropping from Tifa's shoulders. "What? Why in the hell did you let her go down there? It's dangerous!" He turned sharply to charge into the Mansion. The door slammed closed behind him.

Tifa stared after him with an amazed expression. The she turned back toward Vincent. "Now why in the world would he say it's dangerous?"

"Perhaps due to the fact Hojo left an experiment running?"

"Those cylinders? They can't be all that dangerous."

"One never knows when it comes to Hojo."

Tifa turned back toward the Mansion, leaning her hands against the gate without opening it. She released a deep breath. "Vincent, I know you don't usually talk about the stuff that's happened to you, but... But when you did, didn't it make you feel better?"

Vincent leaned his back against the gatepost as he crossed his arms. "It did," he reluctantly admitted.

Tifa examined his expression. "I don't get it. Why have you been hiding in the basement for so long? Didn't you want to be involved in everything that's been going on out here? Didn't you want to be around your friends for the celebration of a new beginning?"

"Friends?"

"Yes, Vincent. Friends. I'd like to think that's what we are. After all, we've put up with your gloomy attitude with patience... for the most part. We helped you find Lucrecia's tomb, or whatever it was, so that you could put some of the guilt away. We asked you to become a part of our team... no, our family because we knew we could help each other." She turned to lean her back against the gate, tapping her heel on the dusty ground. "Come on, Vincent. We don't ask for a lot in return. We just want you to open up a little. We're all worried about you."

"I'm out. Isn't that enough?" Vincent asked impatiently.

"But for how long?" Tifa looked over at him. "We liked having you around, Vincent. You were always interesting company. On those long nights when none of us could sleep, you told some of the best stories of Shinra and the Turks. Sure, you almost never talked about yourself, but that was okay. Why is it so hard to do that now? Just because the world isn't in mortal danger?"

Vincent clenched his jaw and straightened, tossing his red cape over his shoulder as he turned for the gate. Tifa moved out of the way. "I'm doing my best." Vincent could sense her surprise at his response but didn't turn to gauge her expression. She hurried to walk beside him. "That coffin was what I knew," he continued. "The nightmares were my entertainment. To give that up so quickly... It isn't so easy for a stubborn soul bent on his own destruction."

"So why are you out now? Can I ask?"

It was a question that even Vincent hadn't had the courage to voice. "Perhaps... perhaps I'm searching for something."

Tifa thoughtfully nodded. "I can understand that. I was once there myself. I think I still am." Tifa stopped him with a hand on his arm, holding his expression when he looked down at her. "Just be patient with yourself. Okay? Not all questions can be answered at once. Some take time. Some hurt. Some will make you angrier than you've ever been. Give yourself a break, though. It's not easy to do this."

"Do what?"

"Do whatever it is you're doing. Trying to find whatever you've lost. Be patient. That's the best advice anyone could give you."

Vincent examined her, and then he turned away. "Yes. I believe it is."

SUBJECT: VINCENT VALENTINE

Natalie blinked when the file access suddenly opened onto the blue screen of the computer. "What's this?" She clicked the file and began reading. Her face paled and her eyes glimmered, but she forced herself to take those notes of information important for her to know. "Oh my God. Why did he do this to you? Why?" But why had Hojo done any of his experiments? She shook her head and backed out of the file, perusing the other links to see if there was something more.

PERSONAL INFORMATION: VINCENT VALENTINE

Natalie clicked on the link, hoping for something more pleasant inside. "No family?" A tear escaped, and she wiped it away. "Oh Vincent--"

The door slammed open.

Natalie startled, nearly falling out of her chair in the process. Cloud strode further into the room, blue eyes flashing and face firmly set. He dragged her chair from the computer before reaching down to yank the cord from its power supply. Natalie stood, stretching out an arm with a cry of "Stop!" but it was too late. The monitor blackened as the progress made was lost. All that remained were the shorthand notes scribbled onto a faded desk pad. Before she had a chance to react, Cloud waved the cord at her with a dangerous scowl. Natalie found herself taking an involuntary step backward.

"This is against the law," he snapped. He threw the cord roughly to the ground before grabbing her arm and dragging her none too gently to the door. He ignored all protests and explanations. "I don't care if you're a scientist. I don't care if you knew what you were doing. That experiment is none of your business!"

"I don't care about that blasted experiment anyway," Natalie told him in a voice just as angry. "I was only trying to find information about--"

"It doesn't matter. That computer runs on Mako, and you could be in big trouble for using it. Just be glad I found you. I'm willing to forget it even happened, but Barret more than likely'd make you an example."

Natalie twisted her arm from Cloud's grasp with a wince. Then she halted and glared up at him, fists on hips. "It doesn't matter if Sephiroth himself had found me. You had no right to go bursting in and ruin all the hard-earned progress I'd made. You have no idea what I was in the process of doing, and now it's ruined! Perhaps gone forever if you corrupted the hard drive!"

Cloud attempted to grab her arm again, but she avoided his grasp. "Like I said, professor or doctor or whatever you are, I don't care. Everything about Hojo, Gast, and Shinra needs to stay were it is. Do you have any idea what could happen if it fell into the wrong hands?"

"I'm willing to take that risk," Natalie snapped. "I didn't have plans on telling anyone about it! Vincent was the one who--"

"Vincent?" Cloud's eyes darkened. "Vincent told you about that place?"

Natalie turned her face away, tilting her chin up in mute defiance as she crossed her arms. Vincent and Tifa approached.

"What's going on?" Tifa asked calmly.

"What the hell were you thinking?" Cloud snarled as he jammed a finger in Vincent's chest. "You had no business showing her that place."

Vincent only calmly looked down at Cloud's finger. Natalie, on the other hand, stepped menacingly toward the ex-SOLDIER. Vincent stopped her with a hand enfolding her upper arm. Natalie clicked her mouth shut. Vincent finally raised his amber gaze to meet Cloud's blue one.

"She needed a lab," Vincent said.

"She needed a lab? She needed a lab?" Cloud gestured back at the door to the laboratory. "So you just take her there?"

Tifa put a hand on Cloud's arm. "Cloud, calm down."

"There was no harm planned," Vincent countered, his hand still holding Natalie's arm. Her green eyes flashed with fire and rage, but she kept silent.

"No harm-- How do you know what the hell she planned?" Cloud asked harshly, an arm gesturing toward Natalie for effect. "You don't know her from Jenova and you think you have-"

"Cloud," Tifa interrupted with a push at his arm. "Cloud, I think you better walk this off before you say anything you regret."

He glared down at her.

Natalie clenched her jaw, pulling her arm from Vincent's hold. "For yourinformation, Mr. Strife, my research on reversing Hojo's alteration of Vincent has nothing to do with you! Now if there's harm to the planet by doing said research, then so be it! I have nointention of turning my back on him when there's a possibility I could help." She stepped toe-to-toe with Cloud and did her own finger-jab to his chest. "I care about him a whole hell of a lot more than this planet!"

With that, she turned on her heel, pushed past both Tifa and Vincent, and strode from the basement without a single look backward. Tifa stared after her, and then she looked back to Vincent and Cloud with crossed arms. Cloud swore and turned to punch the wall with a fist. Vincent looked a little paler than normal.

"You always did have a flare for picking a fight." Tifa shook her head. "I thought you'd grown out of it."

Cloud ignored her. Instead, he leaned against the wall and crossed his arms. He looked to Vincent. "Sorry, Vincent. I didn't know."

"Yeah? Well you didn't ask either," Tifa pressed.

Cloud met her gaze. "Okay, Tifa. I get your point. Back off."

Tifa smirked. "I'll go talk to Natalie, then." She turned and moved away.

Cloud watched her, and then he faced Vincent again. "So is she right? Is there a cure for whatever Hojo did?"

Vincent moved his gaze from the wall in front of him to the corridor leading to the spiral staircase. "I don't know."

"What about what she said? About trying to find a way of undoing it."

"I know what she said."

"Didn't she tell you anything about it?"

"She said she had an idea." Vincent's voice sounded more and more strained.

"An idea, huh?" Cloud ran a hand through his spiked blonde hair before looking back to the lab. "I never wanted to see that place again, and now I'm going to end up fixing it so she can use a Shinra invention without screwing up the planet." He shrugged suddenly. "Oh hell. Why not." Cloud pushed from the wall to disappear inside the lab.

Vincent stared down the corridor after Natalie. Then he moved his gaze to the door of the room that housed his coffin. He stepped inside, blankly staring at the large black box. '...an idea I've been toying with... I care--' He disappeared within, closing the cover tightly after him. He closed his eyes and willed himself to sleep, grateful for the ever-familiar oppressive blackness that submerged his mind into nothingness...

...and the nightmares...

"Natalie!"

Natalie stiffened, quickly wiping the tears from her face before moving again toward the exit of Shinra Mansion. _You made a total and complete ass of yourself, Nat. Not only did you confess how much you care for Vincent in front of his friends - thereby embarrassing him beyond measure - but you lost your cool and told off the savior of this planet!_ She pressed her lips together, stumbling from the Manson and down the walkway as she wiped another volley of tears from her cheeks.

"Natalie, wait!"

_How am I going to face him ever again? _But she had to. _Why?_ Because she couldn't walk away now that she had found him and a lab. All her life she had felt something waited for her. Something out of her grasp. Now that she had this chance, the feeling didn't lurk in the back of her soul. She had found her purpose: saving Vincent from whatever hell he went to each time he submerged into that coffin. _And now he knows how I feel..._ She choked on a sob, furiously wiping more and more tears from her reddened cheeks as her steps slowed. Natalie finally stumbled to a stop and leaned against the base of the well.

Tifa came to stand beside her, resting a hand on her back. "Natalie?"

"What?" Natalie choked out.

"You okay?"

"Does it look like I'm okay?" Natalie burst out as she turned to face Tifa. "I've just humiliated myself in front of the only man I've ever wanted to impress and you think I might beokay?" Natalie covered her face with her hands and shook her head. "Just kill me now and be done with it. My research is ruined, so I'll probably never be able to find a way to reverse what Hojo did to him. My one chance and this had to happen! It's not fair..."

Tifa absently rubbed her shoe on the back of her leg as she gnawed her lower lip. "Natalie--"

"Whatdo you want?" Natalie cried as she dropped her hands from her face. "Haven't I humiliated myself enough? Must you come and see me like this? Leave me alone..." She pushed away from the well and stumbled over to and into the inn.

Tifa stared after her with a pained expression. Then she slowly shook her head as she made her way back to Shinra Mansion. When she came to the doorway of the lab, she hesitated for a long moment before entering. Cloud stood in front of the two cylinders with crossed arms and a scowl.

"Cloud, can I ask you something?"

"Hm."

"Does Vincent seem different to you?"

Cloud looked over at her in confusion. "Different? What do you mean?"

"I'm not really sure. I guess the fact he's out after so many months is difference enough, but there was something in his face when she left. Something I've never seen before. Did he say anything to you before going back in his box?"

"Nope. Just as tightlipped as ever. Couldn't even get him to talk about her idea." Cloud looked down at his feet. "I didn't piss her off too bad, did I?"

"Surprisingly, no. She was upset, though."

"Damn." Cloud looked toward her with outstretched arms. "Tif, why do I do this to people? Why do I find the quickest way to piss them off and then go that little bit extra?"

"Cloud, she wasn't angry. She was crying. All she could think about was the fact she may have humiliated Vincent." Tifa looked quickly over her shoulder before moving closer to Cloud. "I... I think she's in love with him."

Cloud blinked. "What?"

Tifa nodded. "Really. I'm serious."

"How... When would she've had a chance? He's been in that box forever, and the only time he's been out was when he helped us."

Tifa shrugged. "I don't know the details, but I'd recognize that expression of misery anywhere. You heard what she said, didn't you? About caring for him more than the planet?"

"Well I'll be a--" Cloud broke off and strode to the computer, glaring down at it with an intensity reminiscent of the days when they desperately attempted to defeat Sephiroth and the Turks. "Okay, Tifa. This is what we're going to do. I need you to go to Rocket Town and get Cid and Shera. Tell them we need to get this computer up and running without using Mako. Who knows? Maybe this will help them come up with a new power source."

"Okay. What are you going to be doing?"

"I'm going to go around to the different towns to see if any of them have come up with any ideas. Maybe I'll run into Yuffie somewhere. Seems to me she was spouting some weird stories about power sources in Wutai and Gongaga that didn't have anything to do with Mako."

"Yuffie? Go figure."

Cloud smiled. "Yeah. No kidding."

"What about Natalie and Vincent?"

The smile faded. Cloud rubbed at his scalp. "I don't know one way or the other to tell you the truth. At this point, I just want to stay the hell out of the way. They'll deal with whatever's going on a whole lot better if we just butt out."

"I guess you're right."

Cloud shook his head. "Don't bet on it."


	7. Whispers of History

**.: VII -- Whispers of History :.**

_knock-knock_

Natalie blinked her focus away from the genetic sciences research paper and looked to the doorway. She paled and then flushed, hurriedly standing to her feet and setting the report aside. "Hello."

Vincent motioned inside, amber gaze guarded. "May I?"

"Oh! Certainly." She stepped up to the table and tidied the papers and magazines, freeing up a chair in the process.

_So now what? Do I admit? Do I withdraw? Do I apologize?_ Natalie absently gnawed her lower lip as she fingered the binding of a reference book. Vincent continued into the room, but only to stand across from her position at the table. She knew, in her head, that her comment about 'care' had likely been taken as an innocent expression of a fact. _But you know different, don't you, Nat?_

Natalie cleared her throat and met his gaze. "What can I do for you?"

Silence settled, making Natalie progressively more nervous while aggravating her previously conquered headache.

"If you're concerned about the setback of the computer; don't be. We didn't always have them, you know." She forced a smile. "I'll just have to dig my brain out of the dust-bunnies and do the long-division myself. I'll be fine."

Vincent didn't respond. He only continued to watch her with glowing amber eyes and a guarded serious expression.

Natalie cleared her throat again and set down the reference book. "I'm sorry about losing my temper," she said finally. "Reactionism is a pet-peeve of mine, especially when the person reacting doesn't listen to me." She smirked. "I have a tendency of thinking I know what's best for everyone, even when I don't."

"Cloud apologized," Vincent said simply.

Natalie rubbed at her forhead. "It figures. It seems to always be the 'other one' that apologizes first. I seem to have the talent of making everyone who argues with me think they're really to blame." Vincent didn't comment, so she released a quick breath and motioned to the door before moving toward it. "I need some air. Care to join me?"

Vincent followed after, still silent. Still hauntingly forboding and intense. Natalie loved it. She rolled her eyes and shrugged into her jacket. _You're a sick soul, Nat. Sick and twisted._

They stepped out into the late morning sunshine, Natalie tucking her hands into her pockets as she sent him a sidelong glance. His jaw had clenched, as had his golden claw. Natalie looked away and released a deep breath. _Dammit, Nat, you big-mouthed ego-maniac._

"You said you would be buying the mansion," he said suddenly, voice as guarded as his expression when Natalie looked over at him.

"Uh... Yes. I... er..." Natalie swallowed hard when he finally met her gaze. _Nat!_ "You wouldn't need to stay in the basement when I do. You could have your own floor. Well, if I didn't need it, that is."

Vincent moved his gaze to the Mansion.

Natalie glanced away. "I'm always doing some type of half-crazy research project, so I might need all the floors. But you're welcome to a room or three."

Vincent didn't respond. _Come on, Vincent..._ Natalie paused at the gate to the Mansion's front walk and leaned against it. "Talking with Barret and Nanaki really inspired me to put all my effort into coming up with environmentally safe solutions for the planet. The Mansion would be the perfect place to set up. There are so many rooms that I could have several projects going at the same time."

"Such as?"

Natalie gave a slight shrug. "Oh, you know. My usual research of the reaction human cells have to Mako or Jenova cells when forcefully introduced." She looked toward him. "And then there's my dig projects, which always includes cataloguing and researching the finds and how they affected our history. It's quite interesting, on paper."

"Why did you begin genetic research?"

Natalie shrugged again. "I suppose I had a hard time believing Hojo or anyone would do that to people. Then, as I read more and more articles and learned more about him... He was capable of a lot more insanity. All because he wanted to have some type of power that existed in his mind. I don't know what he thought he was doing by experimenting on all those people. Nothing good ever happened from it." She looked to Vincent again. Her lips twitched. "Well. Almost nothing."

Vincent regarded her. "What exactly did Hojo alter?"

"Well, it's complicated." Natalie cleared her throat. "Um... Each of our genes has the molecule deoxyribonucleic acid or DNA." She cleared her throat again. "When one or more genes of an organism are introduced to a second organism and is accepted, that's called recombinant DNA. In your case, the genes inserted consisted of Jenova genes. This recombinant DNA then altered the characteristics of the organism - you - by changing its protein makeup."

"Protein makeup?"

"Proteins perform vital functions in our body. Enzymes, for example, cause chemical reactions within an organism while hormones control growth, our metabolism, and reproduction."

"So the recombinant DNA that was injected into my cells changed this... this protein, thereby changing me," Vincent said slowly.

"Essentially, yes." Natalie sighed, pulling her hands from her pockets and crossing her arms. She moved her focus to Vincent as he stood beside her. His amber eyes intensely scrutinized her face.

"If this DNA has been accepted by my own, how could you possibly reverse the alteration? You have said the protein makeup of my DNA has been altered from what it was, so how..."

"I..." Natalie cleared her throat. "I know. It sounds ridiculously simple, but I was going to reintroduce your original DNA back into your system."

"How?"

She sent him a sidelong glance. "Well, even though the protein makeup of your DNA was altered, the DNA contained in your sperm wasn't." She flushed but held his gaze. "You're the host, so you're the only one affected by the alteration. I was going to use that DNA to re-introduce your original DNA to alter the protein makeup back to its original specifications."

"If that doesn't work, did you have another option?"

Natalie closed her eyes. "I don't want to talk about it." She pushed away from the gate to begin walking toward the path that led out of Nibelheim toward Mt. Nibel. After several moments, he followed her.

"What is it?" Vincent asked.

"I... I never cared for the other option."

Vincent regarded her a moment. "There's something else."

Natalie shook her head. "Don't worry about it."

Vincent halted her progress with his claw on her arm. She turned to look at him. "Why do you believe I may die if you reintroduce my original DNA?"

Natalie moved her focus away as she released a deep breath. "The Jenova cells influenced your DNA in a way I can't really categorize. You don't age - did you know you're almost 60 years old? - your eyes changed to red, which caused your visibility to become enhanced; and you now have the ability of flight. Well, maybe not flight, but something similar. Then there are the alter egos that emerge when you lose your temper."

Natalie rubbed her forehead with one hand, the other resting on her hip. "I don't know how the Jenova will react to the process. It may accept the procedure. It may ignore it altogether. Or it could completely shut down your system because of some type of unknown incompatibility."

"In other words, Jenova may prove to be stronger than my original DNA."

"To put it simply, yes." Natalie sighed, lowering her hand to meet his gaze. "I want to believe it's possible. Then again..." She turned away, walking again toward Mt. Nibel. Her misery settled in the pit of her stomach with a wave of nausea. "I just don't know what to do," she murmured.

"Do you perform the procedure and risk my death? Or do you leave me to my misery?"

Natalie cringed without meaning to.

"You doubt my current existence is misery?"

Natalie stopped and faced him. "Yes," she said, matter-of-fact. "All your friends said that they like you just the way you are. They said that you're fun to be around, even though you'll never admit it. So that leads me to wonder, is your life really that miserable?"

Vincent's eyes flickered before he looked away. "Perhaps."

"Perhaps?" Natalie repeated with a slight wrinkle of her nose. "What kind of answer is that?"

"The only one can give at the moment. Many things are changing, and I haven't had a chance to..." Vincent's voice drifted.

Natalie examined his expression. "Vincent, do you mind if I ask you a question?"

"No." Though his answer seemed guarded.

"Why do you want me to change you back to normal?"

Vincent stared ahead of them so long that Natalie didn't think he would answer. "In this form I am... Hojo's creation," he finally admitted. "His slave and puppet. If I don't attempt to free myself of his influence, then he has won the final battle and laughs last. I refuse to give him this power when there might be an avenue of release." He finally faced her. "He took my life without permission. He acted as a god and chose this existence with no thought of what my future would be. That control wasn't his to take, and I have chosen to take it back. You're my only hope of that."

Natalie swallowed hard, his amber eyes easily holding hers. _There it is, Nat. You asked a heavy question and got a just as heavy reply. He opened up his heart and gave it to you without even a blink. What are you going to do? Chew on it a bit and hand it back to him with a 'So sorry, changed my mind' excuse that neither of you will believe? Don't think so._

"I've never admitted to hope before," Vincent calmly continued. "I suppose it comes from the life I experienced with Cloud and the others. I'm more able to accept the impossible as a reasonable truth. After all, isn't that what we did in rescuing the planet?" He motioned toward her. "Now you've taken on the implausible goal of finding a cure for a monster. You accept it as your life's quest and move on, even in the face of the current set-back. I find my hope becoming... more than what it was."

Vincent moved his gaze to Shinra Mansion. Natalie watched him in awe-struck wonder.

"For what seemed ages I enclosed myself in that box, believing it a suitable punishment for whatever great sin I had committed. In reality, it was my way of hiding from life. I didn't want to face alone what we had once shared together."

Vincent lowered his eyes briefly before looking toward Natalie. He examined her face for a long and silent moment, and then he refocused his amber eyes toward the Mansion. "I've been a coward for many years, yet another way Hojo shamed me. I was a Turk, but I allowed myself to be tucked away and forgotten. Taking my life back when Cloud and the others found my resting place felt exhilarating. Duty. Purpose. These had been facets of my life as a Turk that had become somehow forgotten. Pushed aside by guilt and shame. Now I've been given yet another chance to find them. To find my place in this new existence. Why should I...?"

Natalie took a step forward without realizing it. "Why should you...?" She placed a hand on his golden claw. "Vincent? Why should you what?"

Vincent moved his gaze to her again, and the expression in his normally guarded amber eyes gave Natalie a shock. She saw confusion and helplessness. She raised a hand to stifle the gasp as she dropped her other hand from his arm. When she did, something in his eyes changed and he turned away.

"Why should I fight what I want?" Vincent finished in an odd voice.

Natalie watched him for a long and silent moment before saying "I don't know. Why should you?" very quietly.

And the intensity of the silence that followed hit her like a wave. Then he was saying "I must go," in a taut voice and propelling himself into the air and away toward Mt. Nibel, Natalie taking a step after him before she could stop herself.

But then he was gone and she was left to stare after him.

Natalie heard a scuff of shoes on wood as she came to the door of Vincent's room later that afternoon. She slowly pushed open the door, peeking her head around the corner. Instead of Vincent, a young woman with short brunette hair sat cross-legged on his coffin while sharpening a nasty looking shuriken-type weapon. Something rang strangely familiar about the weapon as Natalie stepped the rest of the way in.

The young woman looked up. An eyebrow rose as the eyes took on an almost disbelieving expression. "What're you doing here?"

Natalie arched an eyebrow. "Do I know you?"

"No, and that's why I'm asking. Vinnie likes his privacy."

Natalie crossed her arms. "And what do you know of Vincent?"

"Me? We're chums, if you really need to know."

"Then I'll leave you alone." Natalie turned to go, but the girl rushed to stand in front of her. "Can I help you?"

"You don't need to look down your nose at me. Just tell me why you're in his space."

"I'm not looking down my nose at you," Natalie contradicted. "I don't like your attitude."

The girl blinked in surprise, and then she crossed her arms. "Hm. Spunk. I wasn't expecting that."

"And just how would you expect anything from me," Natalie countered with a frown. "You don't know me."

"Oh I know your type all right. Seen enough of them. Scientist. Old maid. Doesn't know much about anything but things that haven't existed for, like, a thousand years."

Natalie flushed with irritation as she clenched her fists. "Of all the-- Who do you think you are?"

"Think? I know who I am. Who're you?"

"None of your business."

The girl shrugged. "Whatever." She made her way back to the coffin and vaulted up onto it, again sitting cross-legged. She pulled out her weapon to sharpen it once again. "I'll just wait here and ask Vinnie."

"Good luck. I doubt he'll be back." That statement acted like a knife to Natalie's heart.

The girl looked up, eyebrow raised. "What're you talking about? This is his home. He always comes here." She narrowed her eyes as she examined Natalie's face. "Then again, he's usually always here in the first place. Doesn't ever go nowhere. Just stays in the box dreaming. Nightmares. Whatever. How would you know anything about it?"

Temper sparked. "For your information, little miss, I've been researching Vincent ever since I was in school."

"Is that so?"

The girl looked downright amused, which irritated Natalie even more. "And what is so blasted funny?"

"Oh, nothing. I just never thought I'd see the day Vinnie had someone sweet on him." Natalie's jaw dropped, and she spluttered for several seconds. The girl laughed. "Gee. This is fun. The others just ignore me."

Natalie glared. "With good reason!"

The girl laughed again. "Yeah, well, what can I say? That's me for you."

"And who is 'me'?"

"Yuffie."

Natalie's temper died as quickly as it flared. "Yuffie Kisaragi?"

Yuffie raised an eyebrow. "Yeah. Who wants to know?"

"I'm Natalie Long. I've been trying to get a hold of you for an interview, but no one knew where you were."

"You're Natalie Long." Yuffie's expression became guilty. "Damn. Sorry about that. Now you probably won't make me sound so cool in your article."

Natalie waved it away. "Don't worry about that. I've not exactly had the perfect day today. I'm a little short-tempered."

"Noticed. Anything to do with the fact Vinnie isn't in his box?"

Natalie cleared her throat. "Yes, well, never mind about that."

Yuffie slid off the coffin. "Whatever floats your boat. I'm starving. Can we get something to eat?"

"Sure."

"Then I'll tell you all I know about these losers."

"Well actually, the article is about what they're doing to save the planet."

Yuffie looked bored. "Oh. I won't have much to say about that. They never listen to any of my ideas."

"Ideas? About what?"

"About what we could use for power instead of Mako. They just think I'm a stupid kid. Well, I'm more than 16," she said defensively as they made their way toward the staircase, "and just because I'm young doesn't mean I'm stupid. I've been around. I've seen things."

"I'm sure you have." Natalie regarded the young woman a moment. "Why don't we get some lunch, and then you can talk as much as you want. I'm sure I'll be interested in everything you have to say."

Yuffie looked surprised and then suspicious. "Yeah. Right."

"No. Really. I'm a scientist, and I'm sure that what you think about things has a lot of plausible merit. Just because you're young, as you say, doesn't mean you don't have a lot of good scientifically solid ideas." Natalie smiled as she opened the door at the top of the spiral staircase, allowing Yuffie to go first. "Besides, I was young once. I'm sure I remember feeling just as frustrated with the scientific community not listening to me."

"Cool." Yuffie looked her over. "You're all right, Nat. You're all right."

"Thank you."

Yuffie sent Natalie a collection of sidelong glances. "So, how'd you meet him anyway?"

"Vincent? Purely by accident."

"Yeah. Me too. Cloud, Aeris, and me were investigating the Mansion because some weirdos in black capes were spouting that Sephiroth was in there. He was there all right, but so was this riddle about some guy being locked away in the basement because he was in the way of some kook's research."

"That would be Hojo."

Yuffie snorted. "Bingo. That guy was the kookiest of all the things I've seen, man. Plain, all-out strange."

"I agree, but in a way, his tendency toward the bizarre is exactly what drew me to Vincent."

Yuffie switched her focus to Natalie. "Huh?"

"Lucrecia was Hojo's assistant in almost all of his research regarding Jenova, Mako, and genetic engineering. She was also related to my teacher in school, in a roundabout way, and so I had the luck of being kept abreast of all she was involved in. As much as my teacher was told, anyway."

"Gossip. Juicy gossip. That gets schoolgirls each and every time. Believe me. I know."

Natalie smiled slightly. "Yes. I suppose that's how it started. I was intensely interested in furthering my studies in archaeology, but when I read of the experiments, I decided to minor in the genetic sciences."

"Because of Vincent? Wow. That's deep."

Natalie grimaced. "Not really. It's fantastical nonsense."

"Huh?"

Natalie chuckled. "I studied Hojo's work for a purely selfish reason."

"I don't buy that."

"Well, it's true just the same. I wanted a life of adventure. And what is more adventurous than curing a lunatic's mad scheme or experiment? And then, to add to it all, was Vincent's life of adventure and danger and broken hearts. It was just too... too romantic for me to ignore. I wanted to rescue someone the same way all the heroes and heroines in the books did."

Yuffie regarded Natalie. "You don't think Vincent wanted to be a Turk?"

"No. I don't. The people in the slums, and even out here, didn't have much of a choice in anything. Shinra was the absolute power. How else would he survive unless he chose to do so?" Natalie shrugged. "To survive, he had to do what I believe went against his nature. Then, like any of us, he became desensitized. Cold." Natalie changed her gaze to Yuffie, who looked incredulous. "Come on. Don't tell me you're not guilty of the same?"

Yuffie lowered her eyes. "Yeah. I guess so."

"Well, that was that. The adventure beckoned, and I couldn't turn from it. So I studied and struggled to understand everything Hojo was involved with. Believe me, he was into some outlandish things."

"Duh."

Natalie smiled. "I guess that was obvious."

"Does Vinnie know how you feel?"

Natalie looked sharply over at Yuffie. "What are you talking about?"

Yuffie grimaced. "Oh brother. It's obvious you're sweet on him, Nat. And you might as well get it out into the open. That drove me nuts about Tifa and Aeris. Both of them were nuts about Cloud, but none of them would say anything. Aeris wouldn't because she knew how Tifa liked him and he liked her. They had a history, I guess. Tifa wouldn't because she thought Cloud was wild about Aeris. Of course, even I thought that because he was always doing so much for her. Finally, Cloud never said anything because he was so obsessed with finding and killing Sephiroth." Yuffie made a disgusted sound. "Now Tifa and Cloud are together like they should have been in the beginning. It took them long enough."

"It's never that easy, Yuffie. Just wait. You'll find out one day."

"I don't think so. If I like someone, I'll just march right up to them and tell them straight to their face."

Natalie chuckled. "Yes. I guess you would."

"Why can't you do that with Vinnie? Don't let his face fool ya. He's a great guy. Sure, he doesn't talk much, but he kicks butt in a fight."

"That's not exactly the basis of a relationship, Yuffie. Besides, we don't really know each other very well."

"Yeah. Right."

Natalie looked at Yuffie with a raised eyebrow. "What is that supposed to mean?"

"Oh come on. Not even you believe that. You've been studying him for, like, all your life. All you've got to do is tell him about you. And you've probably been doing that already. All you professor types talk a lot when you get started." Yuffie pointed at Natalie. "Am I right? Of course I am."

Natalie cleared her throat and looked away. "I found him to cure a mistake, Yuffie. That's all." _I'll never be his Lucrecia._

"Fine, whatever. So do you want to hear my idea or not?"

"Of course." Natalie opened the door to the Mansion and gestured ahead. "After you."

"Here's what I'm thinking," Yuffie began. "Okay, here in Nibelheim you have a mountain. Am I right? Of course I am. Okay. Now, on a mountain there's usually either waterfalls or lots of wind. Am I right?"

"Of course you are," Natalie said with a smile.

Yuffie nodded. "Okay, well here's my idea. Why can't we rig some sort of pinwheel, except real big, that catches the wind and turns it into energy? They already have windmills at Cosmo Canyon. Why can't they hook it up to something that makes the blades' turning make power?"

Natalie raised an eyebrow, nodding with interest. "I'd say that's an excellent idea. So simple. Hmm. I wonder why no one's thought of it before."

"Who's to say they haven't? Maybe they've been working on it and can't get it to work? Maybe they were sabotaged by Shinra, like Corel."

"That's certainly possible. Now, about the waterfalls..."

"Oh. Yeah. Well, the water around here goes by so fast I figured we could build some sort of windmill. Just have it be turned by the water instead of the wind. A waterwheel I guess is what we'd call it. Same principle, don't you think?"

"Most definitely."

"I don't know if Cid's already working on them. He's always so secretive about everything. I guess you could ask, though. I mean, you already got them to talk about what they were doing to get this kooky planet back to normal."

Natalie nodded. "That's true."

"And we could always go back to coal."

"We discussed that. Everyone seems to think that burning coal is just too poisonous for the atmosphere to be worth it."

"Yeah," Yuffie admitted with a nod. "I guess that's true." She shrugged. "I guess it doesn't matter one way or the other."

Natalie chuckled. "Well, anyway, thank you for letting me know about your ideas. I'll definitely add them to the list. Would you be interested in helping with them?"

"Helping?" she asked cautiously. "By doing what?"

"By helping me survey some possible locations for power-sources, for one."

"Really?" Yuffie shook her head. "You don't want me to get lost?"

Natalie laughed. "Of course not. I need as much help as I can get." She gestured to the path leading toward Mt. Nibel. "I want to show you an idea I had on where we could set up the power generator. Do you mind?"

"Hell no! I scoped a couple places myself."

"Come on. Let's go and compare notes."

They headed toward Mt. Nibel.

"What a trip if we actually build it before Cid even comes up with something," Yuffie guffawed.

Natalie chuckled. "He does seem a bit over-assured, doesn't he?"

"Damn straight." Yuffie scoffed. "I'd like to smear that damn smirk off his face. I swear he wears it 24/7." She sent Natalie a sidelong glance. "How much do you know about electronics and engineering and shit like that?"

"Nothing, but I'm sure there's a book about it."

Yuffie laughed. "Yeah. Probably. Well, let's get our asses in gear and go check out the different locales for the power. Then I can go start looking for parts and shit."

Natalie looked over at Yuffie with a blink. "A good idea, but how are you going to haul them here by yourself?"

Yuffie jerked a thumb over her shoulder. "Got a car... well it's a buggy more than anything, but it'll have plenty of room without everyone else's ass plugging it up."

Natalie laughed. "All right." She motioned down the path. "I don't know where you went, but the location I saw was just off the main path toward the reactor. It seems there's a little trail that leads to a clearing, of sorts, with quick access to the river at the foot of a cliff. The current flows fast there."

Yuffie nodded. "I know exactly where you're talkin'. Saw it. Found a wind tunnel, too."

Natalie smiled. "So did I. Was it on the other side of the reactor?"

"Yup."

"It seems we're on the same wavelength."

Yuffie smirked. "Seems like." She didn't mind.

"One - two - three... I believe this will be enough, Yuffie."

"What of this one?"

Yuffie and Natalie blinked at each other before looking beside them to the walkway between tall bookcases. Vincent approached, book open and expression guarded.

Natalie sent Yuffie a sidelong glance and then cleared her throat. "What is it?"

Yuffie set down her own handful of books and watched the pair, smirking.

"While more general in subject matter, it seems to cover the field quite extensively." He handed it forward, gaze not looking away from her face.

Natalie cleared her throat again as she reached out to take it. _Just calm yourself, Nat._ "Really? Hmm... All right. We'll take that one, too. Thank you."

"I'm gonna go find someone to help out with the parts and stuff," Yuffie said as she stepped past. "You guys do the boring brain work. I'm outta here."

Natalie's serious expression warmed to a smile. "All right, Yuffie. Good luck."

Yuffie waved behind her without turning.

Natalie sent Vincent a glance and then focused again on the books.

"Forgive me."

"For--" Natalie blinked up at him in shock. "Forgive you? For what?"

"For earlier. For leaving so abruptly." Vincent's tone was almost too calm.

Natalie stared at him, slack-jawed. "Of course I forgive you. You didn't do anything but leave after I practically brow-beat you with personal questions." She set the book aside and stretched her arms out toward him. "I understand about all that, Vincent, and I don't blame you for anything."

He shook his head. "It should never be 'of course'."

"Why not? Hm? Tell me that, Vincent. You've had a rough life. It's only understandable you'd be a little rough around the edges, and it doesn't matter to me if you are. I'll always give you another chance. Then another. And another. Why not? It's more than anyone else has given you."

The intensity of her statement reverberated in the room, glowing in Vincent's eyes as they watched her face.

Natalie cleared her throat and looked away, again picking up the book. "This is fun," she admitted, remembering Yuffie's advice. "Reminds me of school and research papers and science projects."

"Grade school? High school? Or college?"

Natalie looked up. Interest could be seen in his expression. She smiled. "Yes."

Vincent motioned toward a collection of chairs further within the library. "You were more at home when at school?"

Natalie cleared her throat again, sending him another sidelong glance as she passed to a chair. "Unfortunately. My parents and I had different ideas of what was acceptable and not." Natalie sat in an overstuffed chair with an arched back situated by a massive desk. Vincent sat opposite her, closely watching her face. "My research papers in high school uncovered some nasty sides of Shinra, but my parents still wanted me to do my best to enter into the hierarchy."

"You didn't want the same."

Natalie shook her head, absently opening one of the books to turn the pages. "No. I wanted to go to college, get my Masters in Archeology, and maybe even my doctorate. Then I wanted to work at private digs, write articles, and research the Cetra. Like Professor Gast."

"Yet your parents didn't agree. They pushed for you to become involved with Shinra immediately following graduation from... high school?"

"I couldn't do it. I hated Shinra. Hated what they stood for. Hated what they wanted for our future." Natalie released a breath. "Hojo worked for Shinra. I-I couldn't. Not when I knew what he'd done. To you, to Lucrecia, to Sephiroth, and even Cloud." She shook her head. "I couldn't."

"And so you became independent, supported by your tenacity and wit."

Natalie chuckled and looked up, a bit surprised at the mild amusement in his expression and tone. "I didn't find it so poetic at the time, but yes."

"And your Masters?"

"In science with a focus on Archeology. The Cetra, of course."

Vincent conceded the statement with a slight nod. "And what of your doctorate?"

Natalie smiled. "Side-tracked by delusions of grandeur" _and romantic notions of saving a lost soul._

Vincent's lips twitched.

Natalie rested her elbow on the arm of the chair, placing her chin in her palm. "What about you?"

Vincent held her gaze. "Surely you've read my file."

"I have, but I want to hear it from you."

Vincent looked down to the book in his hands. He lightly stroked the binding and the cover as he turned it over and again. "It has been a long time since I held books in these hands. Thirty years? Forty? I don't remember."

Natalie watched him, her throat constricting as she did so. She straightened and looked down. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have asked. We don't have to talk about it."

Vincent gave a slight shake of his head as he raised his eyes. "It's all right. Curiosity is natural for you."

Natalie flushed, lowering her gaze to the words on the page. "Yes, but there's a time and place for everything. I usually forget that." She felt a bit of wetness run down her cheek and quickly wiped it away. "I better start studying," she whispered.

Natalie could feel him watching her as she searched the Table of Contents for the appropriate sections of the book. In fact, she could almost hear the question he wanted to ask. Or maybe she heard the statement he wanted to say. Or maybe she heard the question he wanted her to ask. Maybe all.

The first section of the book was found and turned to, but the words refused to be understood as she read and reread paragraph number one. Natalie sighed, rubbing her forehead with a finger as she tried yet again to understand the general workings of engineering. It should have been simple compared to what she'd discovered of genetic engineering and DNA manipulation.

Natalie sighed and started again.

"I studied literature at University," Vincent said suddenly.

Natalie blinked, and the words on the page vanished from her attention.

"I believed I wanted to teach once I had my degree. What else was there to do? In school I was like you, independent with a leaning towards being a recluse. Although I did join the archery and sharp-shooting teams there. I wonder now if that was due to the need I had to be a part of something. A team. A... family."

Natalie swallowed hard and looked up to meet his intense amber gaze.

"That of course drew the attention of the Turks. I was 23 when I joined." Vincent dropped his gaze to the book in his hands. "My mother died when I was quite young; my father also. I believe I was 17. Living without their support made me... cold. I found it easier to live behind a wall of nothingness than face emotions which caused pain and misery. Yet another asset the Turks reaped for their benefit."

Vincent released the book and stared down at his hand and claw with an expression that showed memories and disgust. Natalie's throat tightened as she watched him.

"I suppose my current form is a culmination of the horrors I enacted all too eagerly. I did monstrous things. Hojo then made me a monster. How apropos."

Natalie shook her head, suddenly leaning forward in her chair to take his hands in hers and meet his gaze... it was cold and distant. "Vincent. You've had a hard life, harder than some, but you aren't a monster," she said calmly enough, but panic had her by the throat. "That's why I looked for you, because I didn't believe that the life you had before or after was what you wanted. You didn't really have a choice. You did what you had to do in order to survive. To be part of something." Her hands tightened on his. "I want to help you find that something, but I need your help."

Vincent stared down at her, the memories and accusations crashing across his face... Then the glaze and distance slowly began to fade. He very slightly nodded.

Natalie released a deep breath and reluctantly released his hands as she forced a smile. "Now let's start studying. I need power before I can cure you, and I'm determined to have that before the week is out."

Vincent raised an eyebrow. "You shouldn't raise your hopes."

"Why not?" she asked, expression serious. "If I don't give myself a goal, how do I get better?"

"But Cid has attempted the same without success."

"And what does that have to do with me?" Natalie asked as she looked down to the book on her lap. She flipped through the pages again. "I'm not Cid."

"No, you aren't. Cid is an engineer with years of experience."

"Experience," she scoffed. "What's experience next to the desire to actually do what I've set out to do?"

"Pro--"

"Don't argue," Natalie scolded with a sharp glance up at him.

Vincent blinked, expression mildly surprised. That quickly faded to a smirk. "Yes, Professor."

Natalie chuckled, cheeks flushing. "Sorry. I told you I'm not very tactful."

_I can't believe this is happening. I'm joking around with Vincent Valentine._ Vincent lowered his gaze to the book in his hand and opened it to begin reading. Natalie silently watched him, lips tilted upward in a smile.


	8. Elsewhere

**.: VIII -- Elsewhere... :.**

"You want what?"

"I want you and Shera to come up with a power source for a computer in the basement laboratory of the Shinra Mansion," Tifa said again.

Cid released a long sentence solely comprised of expletives as he threw his cigarette to the ground. "And how the hell am I supposed to do that when I still haven't come up with a #$&# power source for the farming equipment Barret wants so &$#$# bad."

"I don't care how you do it, Cid. It's for Vincent, okay?"

"Vincent? That spook? What the hell does he need it for?"

"There's a professor who might be able to cure him." Cid stared at her in shock. Then he lit another cigarette. "I'm serious, Cid. She has an idea and wants to give it a try."

"She? Damned if a woman would be able to cure anything," he scoffed after a deep drag.

Tifa frowned as she crossed her arms. "Cid, you and Shera are the only hope--"

"Well then I guess you won't get your #$&! power source."

"Fine. I'll ask the professor. She seems to have more brains than you right now."

Cid gave a snort and turned to stride away. Shera stepped up a few minutes later. "I'll come, Tifa, if you think that would help."

"I'm sure Natalie will appreciate all the help she can get."

Shera looked after Cid with a slight smile. "He's frustrated. It hasn't been going so well."

Tifa sighed, throwing up her hands in exasperation. "Fine. That doesn't mean he has to be a jerk, does it?"

Shera smirked. "It's Cid, Tifa."

"I know. I know."

Shera gnawed her lower lip. "Tifa, is it true this professor has a cure for Vincent?"

"That's what she was trying to do on the computer at the Shinra Mansion in Nibelheim. Only problem is, our dear Cloud wrecked the computer before she could do anything other than get her hopes up. It was hooked up to a Mako generator, you see."

"Oh." Shera wrinkled her nose in concentration. "A Mako generator, hm? How small was it?"

"I'm not sure exactly. All I know is that it wasn't very big. If Shinra can do it, why can't we? I figured that with the three of you working together you'd be able to come up with a safe alternative to Mako. Don't you think?"

Shera nodded absently. "I better go get packed."

She turned and walked away. Tifa stared after her with a smile and a shake of her head.

Shera stepped into Cid's house and immediately set to work fixing him tea. It didn't matter whether he wanted some or not because that was one of her duties. She made tea, kept his house clean, his laundry current, and helped him with his research and experiments regarding environmentally safe alternatives for the equipment that would be so desperately needed. It was the least she could do to repay him for saving her life at the cost of his own dreams.

Cid slammed into the house with a few extra expletives as he tossed himself into a chair at the table. She set a teacup in front of him, the teapot beside him, and the sugar within easy reach before she turned to go.

"Shera, what do you think?"

Shera turned back toward him. "What do I think about what?"

"About what Tifa said. About the whole idea of going to Nibelheim to help some broad with nary a thought in her head."

"I was going to go." He glared at her for a long moment before tossing a couple sugar cubes into his teacup. Shera thought the cup would crack. "It seemed you had some better ideas once you'd gotten back from your short trip to Nibelheim. What's to say that working with someone other than me might break loose your block?"

"Damned if you aren't right. Shit. I hate it when you're right." He jerked the hat from his head and threw it to the table. "Pour the damn tea, woman. Then we'll pack. I have a feeling we're going to be there for awhile."

Shera hurried forward and grabbed for the teapot, nearly dumping it into his lap in her excitement. He leaped clear and snorted with a shake of his head.

Cloud reigned in the gold chocobo outside a tent he recognized as Tifa's. He took off the saddle and bridle, set it off to graze with Tifa's blue one, and then ducked inside the tent. She was tucked into her sleeping bag reading a book. He set his sword and scabbard by the door and then sat on the ground beside her.

Tifa lowered the book to give him a smile. "Hey, you. What's with the face? Couldn't find Yuffie?"

Cloud laid back to rest his head against her stomach. She immediately began playing with his spiked hair, just as she always did. "Nah. Nobody's seen her for weeks. She never disappears until someone actually needs something."

"It can't be that bad. Don't you think Shera and Cid can handle it? They've done a good job so far."

Cloud shrugged. "I guess, but this is going to be different. This time they have to actually come up with something that works."

Tifa gave him a playful knock on the head. "Give them a break, Cloud. It's hard to work under pressure with someone like Barret constantly looking over your shoulder. Don't you remember?"

"I know, I know. I guess I'm just getting a little frustrated with the slow progress. I mean, it's been a month. We should have some kind of idea for a power supply by now. The people are getting nervous."

"So are you, it sounds like." Tifa sat up, carefully adjusting Cloud's head into her lap. She smiled down at him. "You know, you don't have to be the savior all the time. Take a vacation. Let someone else worry about the planet and everyone on it."

One side of his lips tilted upward. "Sounds like a good idea, but..."

Tifa smiled wider. "But you like being the good guy."

"Well, yeah."

Tifa sighed with a slight shake of her head. She kissed his forehead. "That's what I like about you." She raised her head to look down at him expectantly. "Okay, Mr. Good Guy, what's the plan? You can't find Yuffie, I can't get a definite answer from Mr. Pain-In-Everyone's-Ass, and we have a shy professor in love with a distant and closemouthed ex-Turk. What do you suggest we do?"

Cloud was quiet for a long time before he let out a quick breath and looked away from Tifa's face. "Go on vacation?"

Tifa chuckled. "Hey, you started it. You can't back out now."

"Why not? We've got the tent, the girl, the boy--"

Tifa flushed. "Hold it right there, Mister."

Cloud laughed up at her. "You're too easy." He sat up before she could clobber him, rolling to a standing position. "I'm going to go get my bedroll and tent and start setting up. If you want to help..."

He ducked outside. Tifa put her hands on her hips with a shake of her head and a slow smile. Then she slipped free of the sleeping bag and put on her shoes. She stepped outside to help Cloud.

"So are you going back to Nibelheim to help Natalie?"

Cloud nodded. "Yeah. I've got to. I feel like a jerk for what I did before."

"I'm sure she'll appreciate the gesture. I don't think she feels all that great about how she acted either."

"I deserved it."

Tifa nodded with a laugh. "Yes, you did. And she gave it to you squarely between the eyes. It was great fun to watch."

"Ha ha. Very funny."

They secured the tent, and then Cloud disappeared inside to set up his bedroll. Tifa waited outside until he emerged again. "Say, Cloud, let's go for a walk. We need to get firewood anyway."

"Sure. Let me get my sword." He slipped into the massive scabbard, adjusted the sword on his back, and then grabbed her hand. "Just don't ask me what I'm going to do about Natalie and the whole Vincent thing. I haven't any idea, and I don't want to think about it either."

Tifa tightened her grip on his hand with a smile. "Okay."


	9. Experiments of Frustration

**.: IX -- Experiments of Frustration :.**

"All right. That makes sense," Natalie muttered, "but this? No. I must have read wrong. Where was that page?"

Vincent adjusted his position against the tree as he watched her. One of her curls had strayed the fetters of her no-nonsense ponytail to continuously tickle her forehead. This of course encouraged the occasional action of blowing air through her lips to chase it away, or the ever-effective swipe of the back-of-hand or wrist. Apparently Natalie wasn't too worried about preventing grease or oil spots with the action. She already had quite a collection on her forehead and nose, as well as on her jeans and sweatshirt.

Of course, the quad had been working on the project for nearly 10 hours.

Yuffie and Red, who had been found exploring the fossil ruins on the other side of Mt. Nibel, were now enroute to Wutai to procure a waterwheel. Natalie, on the other hand, was double-checking connections and modifications as she readied the contraption for its first test. She hadn't taken a break since the two had emerged from the basement lab of Shinra Mansion.

At times it was a bittersweet duty Vincent had chosen, watching her. She reminded him of Lucrecia in so many ways. Her intelligence. Her tenacity. Her determination. There the similarities ceased. A softer and more humorous side overlaid all of Natalie's aggressiveness. Vincent couldn't remember whether or not Lucrecia had shown the same. It had been too long.

"Ouch!" Natalie dropped whatever tool she had been using and rubbed at an unknown body part with a frown.

"What happened?" he found himself asking.

Natalie absently nodded, and then her head once again disappeared out of his field of vision. One of Vincent's eyebrows twitched. _Yes. She is tenacious and persistent._

"Blast!" Natalie exclaimed.

Vincent straightened and made his way toward her. Natalie sat back on her heels with a grease and grime covered hand to her forehead as the other rested on her hip.

Vincent crouched beside her. "Blast what?"

Natalie released an annoyed breath. "Of all the-- It's so simple," she muttered, again wiping away the curl with the back of her hand. "Why am I having such an issue?"

"Perhaps you need a break?" Vincent offered as he watched her face.

Natalie wrinkled her nose and leaned toward the would-be generator again. "What is wrong with you?" she asked the machine. "Quit fighting and just do it. Sheesh." Her head ducked inside.

Vincent smirked. "Professor."

"Not now please," she said in an absent tone, muffled from the innards of the machine. "Busy."

Vincent's smile widened. "Yes, I know. However, dinner calls."

"Tell them I'll be there in a minute," came the muffled response. A hand reached out for a tool, grabbed it, and disappeared inside.

A chuckle fought back the inner cold as he straightened. "Very well."

Vincent stepped toward Nibelheim and the Item Shop to get something for her to eat. How he would get her to step away from the project would be the interesting challenge. He didn't believe she would be completely uncooperative. He would only need to find the best way to attract her attention. Memories of Lucrecia's own type of one-track persistence had him believing such would be hard but not impossible. She would either respond with irritation or with... patience?

Vincent's eyebrow twitched. He didn't know enough about her to expect a reaction either way. In fact, their current relationship was nothing but a... _Fascination? Yes._ Natalie was lovely, with her shoulder-length auburn curls, sparkling green eyes, and slight build that contained such passion and intensity. But there was something deeper that fascinated him. Her persona.

The green eyes that showed concern and empathy, though her own life couldn't possibly equal his own torture. The lips that spoke encouragement when she remained silent. The simple loveliness of her face that brightened... when he was seen. Yes. She fascinated him. Her acceptance. Her tenacity. All for him. _Yet shouldn't I still be a stranger?..._ A stranger? To the one that understood him better than anyone ever had? A stranger to the one that had studied him and his history for nearly half their life? A stranger? _No,_ Vincent shook his head. _No, she has never been that._ And that was hard to grasp.

Vincent released a slow breath as he paused on the threshold of the Item Shop. He looked down at his hands: claw and human. Monster and man. Then he looked again toward Mt. Nibel. _She didn't flinch._ And that was harder to grasp. The understanding or reasoning wouldn't be held or had.

Vincent's gaze returned to his hands. "I don't know."

All he'd come to believe had begun to crumble. _I am not a monster to her. I am not a heartless Turk to her. I am not a destroyer of families. I am not a robber of hope. I am..._ Vincent blinked as he slowly lowered his arms to his side and stepped inside the Item Shop.

"Dammit."

Vincent heard a tell-tale sniff, and his brow furrowed. He set the bag of lunch down on the grass near the tree opposite the would-be generator. "What is it?" he asked as he approached.

Vincent found Natalie sitting tailor-style behind the metal box, tools and books splayed out in front of her, grease smudges still coloring her face, and a bit of blood on varying knuckles. She rested her elbows/arms on her knees as she stared into the box, a trail of tears fighting against the grease on her cheeks.

Vincent knelt beside her.

Natalie blinked, turning her face slightly to the left. She gave a tremulous smile. "Oh. Hello."

"What has happened?"

Natalie sighed. Then she stood, brushing the debris from her worn jeans. "I must not have read a section right. I fried a circuit board." And her voice caught on the tears of frustration.

Vincent stood as well, intensely watching her face. The expression of disappointment and near grief grabbed his cold heart and twisted it. "We have more," he reminded.

"I know. I just... I didn't want to waste them on my stupid mistakes."

Vincent raised an eyebrow. "You simply aren't familiar with--"

"I know." Natalie sighed again, raising her gaze to Vincent's face. "I think I need to take a break."

Vincent nodded as he gestured toward the tree some 20 feet away. "I brought dinner."

"You did?" Natalie smiled. "Thank you."

Vincent followed beside her to the tree. "You were distracted, understandably so, and apparently didn't hear what I intended."

"Oh." Natalie flushed, sending him an occasional sidelong glance. "I do that sometimes. Sorry."

Vincent held her hand to steady her as she sat. "I know." He sat down beside her and then handed her the bag. "Tuna sandwich and grape juice. I asked them to make it less sweet than what is normally requested."

Natalie's eyes widened as she took the bag. "How did...?"

"The aroma of tuna and grape juice is hard to confuse with anything else."

"You mean...? The picnics I had down there...? Oh my gosh." Natalie stared down at the bag in her hand.

Vincent examined her face. "What is it?"

"N-Nothing." She reached inside and pulled out the grape juice, unscrewing the plastic lid after giving it a collection of firm shakes. "I hope Red and Yuffie get back soon with that waterwheel."

"You should show me where you will need it to be installed before they arrive."

Natalie looked over at him, lowering the bottle of grape juice with an arched eyebrow. "Why?"

"'Why?' No one else will be able to install it without falling into the river below."

"But... won't the waterwheel be heavy? I don't want you to fall in either."

Vincent gave a slight smile. "I hadn't intended to."

"All the same, I'd feel better if we fixed a rope to it and lowered it down to you. Once you have a firm position, of course."

"While the concern is appreciated, it isn't necessary."

Natalie set aside her grape juice with a deliberate action, her eyes focusing on her fingers that still held the bottle. "Vincent, there will be a rope attached to the waterwheel. It will be lowered to you once you're safely positioned, and you will have a safety harness attached."

Amusement lifted the corners of his lips. "Yes, Professor."

Natalie raised her eyes then to give Vincent a sheepish smile. "Thank you."

Vincent examined her profile, the slight flush of her cheeks, the uncertain smile, the innocence that was so persistent. "No one has cared one way or the other." He looked away, gaze growing distant. "Have they?" But the memories wouldn't come.

"What about your father?" she asked hesitantly.

Vincent shook his head. "I don't remember. It's been too long."

Natalie looked down at the sandwich in her hands. "I'm sorry you don't remember your family," she whispered.

Vincent looked over at her down-turned face, feeling the surprising warmth of comfort from the statement...

"Yo, Vinnie! Nat! Where are ya?"

Vincent stood. "Eat. I will see what Yuffie and Red have brought."

Natalie gave a slight nod.

Vincent stood and made his way to the path leading toward Nibelheim. Yuffie and Red were coming up the way. "Yuffie. Red. Did you find one?"

"As a matter of fact," Red started.

"Damn straight," Yuffie guffawed, "and the thing's huge!"

"Where is it?" Vincent asked as he met them. The trio stopped.

Yuffie jerked over her shoulder. "Back in the buggy. Too heavy. Can you give us a hand?"

"Of course."

"I will see how Natalie is coming on the generator," Red said before moving on.

Vincent and Yuffie made their way back to Nibelheim. "So how is Nat doin' on the thing?" Yuffie asked.

"She seems to have damaged a circuit board."

"So? We've got more."

Vincent nodded. "I know. I told her." He sent Yuffie a sidelong glance. "She demands perfection from herself in everything."

"Hm. Kinda figured." Yuffie motioned back the way she had come. "It's this way. Come on."

Natalie smiled. "Hi, Red. How did it go?"

"Good." Red stretched before lying down in front of Natalie with a deep breath. "It felt good to be on a type of quest. Haven't done so in months."

"Did you find a waterwheel?"

Red nodded and then set about the duty of licking the traildust from his paws and fur. "Yes," he said between licks. "Quite a large one."

"Really? Oh good. Then we shouldn't have to worry about the speed of the water damaging it for a long time." Natalie wiped the tuna-juice from her fingers and set the sandwich aside. Then she stood to her feet and made her way over to the cliff, looking over with her hands on her hips. "There's a little ledge here, so that would probably be the best. That way we can have someone go down on regular intervals to do maintenance and such. Hmm." Natalie examined the other side of the river. "If it's big enough, we might even be able to secure it from both sides. That way it would be even more sturdy and long-lasting. What do you think?"

"A very wise precaution," Red agreed as he sat down beside her. "And I do believe the wheel is large enough to do that very thing."

"Oh good. I was hoping we wouldn't need to install double wheels. Then you have the problem of making them able to run at different intervals, so that you don't have to secure them to run the same." Natalie shivered. "Saves time, that's for sure."

Red nodded, still staring down at the rushing and raging waters below. "How is the generator coming along? Did you need any help?"

Natalie sighed, lowering herself to a sitting position beside Red. "I don't think I can do it by myself. I've already made a mistake that cost a circuit board and the hour or two of time it will take to replace it."

Red looked over at her. "Then don't attempt to do it by yourself," he said, matter-of-fact. "Vincent and I understand the concept almost as much as you do, Natalie. There's no reason for you not to ask for help, or for us not to give it to you."

Natalie flushed as she tucked an imaginary curl behind her ear. "Bad habit."

"One that you will try harder to break?"

Natalie chuckled, finally meeting Red's gaze. "Yes, sir."

Red smiled. Then he licked her face, purring as he rubbed his cheek against hers. "I'm the last one to enjoy scolding, Natalie. Thank you for understanding."

Natalie rubbed him behind the ears before standing to her feet. "Why shouldn't I understand? I deserved that one."

"Yes, but that is generally when we don't want to hear the scolding."

Natalie conceded the point with a nod. "Now that I understand."

Red headed toward the would-be generator. "Shall we do our best to fix what is broken?"

Natalie followed. "Yes. Please. I'm going to start pulling my hair out if something isn't done, and quickly."

Red looked over the pages in the book as Natalie sat beside him and started explaining what she'd done so far.

"It's just so frustrating," Natalie confessed once she'd finished her explanation. "I've got this itch in the back of my head that something isn't right, but I can't put my finger on it."

Red nodded. "Yes, and now the frustration serves only to cloud your mind to the possible solution."

"Iknow," Natalie agreed with wide eyes and a raised hand. "That's why I was having dinner. Vincent thought I needed a break. I agreed."

Red didn't raise his eyes from the book. "Once he and Yuffie arrive with the wheel, why don't you and he see about plotting the mechanism for the wind tunnel."

"No."

Red lifted his eyes. "Pardon?"

"We need to get the cliff ready for the insertion of the wheel," she reminded, pointing toward the ledge.

"Of course," Red said, patient. "Yuffie already has plans to do that."

"She'll need--"

"No," Red interrupted. "She won't need your help. She won't need Vincent's. We have a rope ladder, which we will fasten tightly to the top of the cliff here and lower below."

"But, Red--"

"Natalie."

Natalie took in a deep breath and released it slowly. "All right. I'm sorry, papa."

Red smiled. "I hardly think that's called for."

Natalie chuckled, and then she gestured to the innards of the box. "Any ideas?"

Red nodded as he looked within. "As a matter of fact, yes, but only due to the past history of watching my grandfather repair his refrigerator."

"You're kidding."

Red shook his head. "I'll walk you through it."

"Thank you." Natalie picked up her tools. "Let's get busy."

Vincent heard the roar and whistle of the wind tunnel before he and Natalie had even made their way around the back of the reactor.

"Do you hear that?" she asked him, sending his silent form a sidelong glance. "I hope we can find a fan hardy enough to withstand that pull. If we don't..." Natalie shook her head. "Yuffie's going to be swearing a blue streak."

Vincent smirked.

When the pair began to feel the pull of the wind tunnel, they stopped and simply examined the cave-like tunnel and the nearly visible wind current within.

Natalie rested fists on hips. "Hm. Now here's a puzzle. The circumfrence of the tunnel is larger than the height of the opening." She tilted her head, not noticing that Vincent scrutinized her rather than the cave. "We likely won't be able to install a fan as large as the tunnel itself. Too bad. It would be a better utilization of the wind-force."

She crossed her arms and took a step forward to get a better look within, not noticing that the wind began to whip her auburn curls about her face. She only absently brushed them from her face. Vincent kept careful eye on her as he slowly followed her step, gauging the force of the pull of the wind as he did.

"I suppose we could install a tall pole that would be attached to the generator out here, and then affix more than one fan to it. That would give us double or triple utilization. Although... There might be a problem with the timing of the blades, unless we hook up more than one generator."

Natalie took another step toward the tunnel, and Vincent again followed. This time the greater pull of the wind made his body tense as he readied himself for a quick reaction. "Professor," he warned.

Natalie absently nodded as she cupped an elbow in her opposite hand and tapped her lips with a long finger. "I know. That might not be necessary if I can get the timing and circuitry correct in the one. And it would be a waste of hardware that we could use elsewhere." She pointed at the tunnel. "If only I could reason a way of installing larger fans into the tunnel walls, with a metal guide within the rock of course. Then we could have the calibration unit fastened to the rock wall out here that would regulate the input to the generator. Although... Hm."

She again tapped her lips, her auburn brows lowering in a slight frown as she made a move to step forward yet again. This time, however, Vincent grabbed hold of her arm and kept her back.

Natalie blinked up at him. "What's the matter?" she asked, green eyes wide.

Vincent pulled the bit of material from her hair that supposedly kept it back into a ponytail and released it. The bit of blue material was immediately pulled into the tunnel and sucked violently upward. Natalie stared at it with slack jaw. Then she clicked her mouth shut and cleared her throat as she sent him a sidelong glance. Vincent released her arm. "A safe distance would be wise."

Natalie chuckled. "Yes. You have a point." She motioned toward the wind tunnel. "So what do you think? Midgar or Cosmo Canyon have any wind towers powerful or sturdy enough to handle something like that?"

Vincent regarded her a moment before looking to the wind tunnel. "More than likely. Red would be the better one to ask."

"Certainly, but you've seen them in action. From what I understand from Yuffie, the wind towers at Cosmo Canyon don't need to withstand as powerful a gust as what's here. Do you think it would take much to condition them for that?"

Her continued questions on his opinion drew his attention. "I don't know."

"We'll have to go and see," she immediately volunteered, holding his gaze. "How about we go after we have the water-wheel up and running? I'm sure Yuffie and Red will let us borrow the buggy." She smiled. "Of course, I don't think I'll need the power of the wind tower to run the little computer in the lab, so maybe we should put it off until I cure you. What do you think?"

Fascination and intrigue grew, especially at the memory of her spark of temper in the hallway of the Shinra Mansion and her remark of disdain for the risk to the... "What of the planet?"

Natalie wrinkled her nose and waved a hand before taking him by the arm, her hand not flinching away from the cool golden metal as she led him back toward the clearing. "The planet will still be here in a week. I doubt putting off the installation of a wind tower will sabotage anything. First come first served, and you've been waiting for nearly 30 years. I think that's long enough, don't you?"

Vincent caught and held her sidelong smirk. _Perhaps._

"I don't like this," Natalie muttered as she secured the rope around the waterwheel.

Vincent helped her while Red made sure Yuffie didn't take unnecessary risks with the fasteners on the cliff's side.

"I have a bad feeling, Vincent."

Vincent double-checked the knot before going to her side. "I've done more dangerous tasks than this and lived to tell the tale."

Natalie bit her lower lip. "Just be doubly careful this time. All right?"

He handed her the harness he was to wear. "I will."

Natalie helped him strap into it. "Promise?"

Vincent stared down at her trembling hands as they worked with the belt of the harness. When she looked up, he could see the uncertainty in her expression. It was the first time he had seen that expression since looking into the face of Lucrecia that evening--

Natalie stepped forward to enfold him in an embrace, and Vincent blinked in surprise. When she stepped back, her expression was stern.

"I'll have a firm hold on this rope, Mr. Valentine," she told him, matter-of-fact. "No heroics. You understand me?" Natalie held his gaze for a fraction of a moment more before stepping back and motioning for the cliff. "Get a position. Then we'll lower the wheel."

Vincent gauged her expression a moment before doing as he was told. He stepped up to the extreme edge, gauging the distance as Yuffie made her way up the rope ladder. "How is it down there?" he asked.

Yuffie pulled herself up and then brushed the dirt from her trousers. "A bit gusty. Nearly toppled twice. Watch it."

Vincent gave a brief nod, again gauged the distance, and then dropped over the side.

"Vincent Valentine!" he heard Natalie yell down after him."

Vincent smirked as his feet touched ground. Yuffie hadn't exaggerated. He tested his footing, noted the ground was a bit slick, and then tested the harness.

"All right!" he called up to them. "Lower the wheel!"

The trio rolled it very carefully over the side, Red doing an admirable job of slowing its progress with a firm jaw-hold on the rope. Vincent rose from the ground, very conscious of the gusts and what they did to his position, and intercepted the wheel partway down. Then he guided it very slowly and deliberately into the restraining holsters that Yuffie had set up on either side. One side clicked into place. The other didn't.

Vincent frowned. "Hold tight up there! We seem to have a problem!" He directed himself over to the other side of the wheel. A stone had become lodged in the harness. "Pull up the far side! I need to dislodge a rock!"

There were the sounds of grunts and grumbles as the appropriate side began to lift. Vincent waited a moment longer... and then he quickly reached in, grabbed the pebbles, and retrieved his hand just as the wheel slipped into place.

"Vincent! We slipped! Are you okay?"

Vincent raised himself up into their view, and then he lowered himself into a sitting position on the opposite bank. "Fine."

Natalie released a deep breath, positioned as she was on all fours looking down into the 'canyon', and lowered her head. "Thank God." She lifted her head again, straightening to sit back on her heels. "And you are in so much trouble, Mr. Valentine," she accused as she pointed at him.

Vincent crossed his arms, his lips giving a slight twitch. "I wore the harness. I never said I would use the ladder."

Fists on hips. "Ooo," she said with a meaningful glare.

Vincent smirked.

Natalie reluctantly laughed. "I believe it's time for this Professor to take a nap. I'm a bit crankier than normal." She rubbed her eyes with the backs of her hands before giving a nice long stretch.

Vincent raised an eyebrow. Her graceful movements reminded him of a cat.

"It's good thing I brought over pillows and blankets earlier." Natalie continued to smile as she pushed to her feet. "And I think I'll go make use of them right now. But." She pointed at him with a sudden expression of seriousness. "You, Mr. Valentine, are still in trouble."

Vincent released a chuckle.

Red and Yuffie laughed.

"Natalie."

There was a soft touch to her cheek. Natalie smiled and slowly opened her eyes. "Hello," she murmured.

Vincent lowered his hand, and Natalie noticed an odd glint in his eyes.

"We are about to test it," he told her. "I thought you would want to see."

Natalie nodded her head while she yawned. Then she sat up, still holding the blankets around her as she did. Vincent helped her to her feet. "Thank you," she said sleepily. Natalie wobbled, so Vincent steadied her with an arm to her waist. _Ooo. I like that._ Then it lowered. _Dang._

Natalie focused her attention to the soon-to-be power generator. "I doubt it will work the first time, but we'll at least know where to go from here."

She and Vincent came to stop a few feet away from the metal box. Yuffie and Red gathered expectantly on the other side.

Natalie released a slow breath. "Well, you might as well turn it on."

Yuffie held up a small box that had wires leading to the generator. "We rigged up a long-distance turn-on switch so that we wouldn't get blasted apart." Yuffie motioned back. "You might want to step back a bit."

The trio did as suggested.

Yuffie took in a deep breath, looked down at the 'on' switch in her hand, and then pushed it. Nothing happened. Yuffie glowered. "Damn it to hell!"

She threw the 'on' switch at the machine. It crashed, whirred to life, and then stopped with a tremendous groan and growl followed very closely by smoke billowing out the side.

"Disconnect it from the wheel!" Natalie shouted while hurrying forward. "Quick! Before all the circuits melt!"

Everyone rushed for the box.

"All right. Here we go." Natalie took in a deep breath, closed her eyes, and pushed the button. The generator spluttered to life. She opened first one eye and then the other. The generator still hummed. She slowly released the held breath, sending a hopeful look over her left shoulder toward Vincent. His eyes moved from their focus on the generator to her. She smiled.

"Yes!" Yuffie hollered as she leaped into the air. "The damn thing works!"

Natalie heard a whine begin from the machine. Her smile disappeared as her eyes quickly focused on it. "No," she whispered. "You can do it. Just hold on."

She felt Vincent's hand on her shoulder when the whine became a shudder and moan. Before Natalie could turn it off, there was a spark and a slight internal explosion. Natalie felt the tears gather, but she pushed them aside as she swallowed hard. She clicked off the machine and stepped forward, organizing in her mind where they would start again. And again. And yet again. _I will get this thing running._ Natalie only wished it wouldn't have taken so much time.

Yuffie sat up, rapidly blinking her eyes. She stood and dusted herself off. "Damn. I thought that one was going to work for sure."

Vincent helped Natalie to her feet. "Are you all right?"

Natalie smiled up at him with a nod before brushing the debris from her jeans and T-shirt. Their most recent attempt at natural power had failed, again. "Yes, but I agree with Yuffie. I thought we had it right that time."

Red shook the debris from his mane before looking at the rubble of the hopeful power source with disappointment. "I suppose we should start again, but so many failures has me a little depressed."

Yuffie nodded as she put her hands on her hips. "Damn straight."

Vincent watched Natalie's expressions. "What do you propose?"

Natalie turned toward the small crater with a deep sigh. "I don't know. I need some time to think before we try it again."

"Fine. You can think all you want. Red and me are going to go get some sleep." Yuffie pulled at Red's tail.

Natalie waved at them with an absent expression as she stared at her hard work turned to rubble. Tears sprung to her eyes. "I don't want to do this again tonight."

Vincent continued to watch her. "You're close," he told her. "Each one has lasted a little longer. This one for nearly an hour."

"I know." She sighed. "I wanted to focus this time on your cure, Vincent, not the power source." Natalie shook her head. "I can't take it anymore. The expectancy of success followed so closely with the devastation of disappointment... I-I just can't." Natalie turned to follow after Yuffie and Red. She stopped when Vincent didn't follow. "What's the matter?" she asked when she faced him.

He watched her, intensely, for another moment before shaking his head and looking away. "Nothing. Good night."

Natalie absently gnawed her lower lip. _Don't badger!_ "Good night," she said softly.

She turned away, tucking an auburn curl behind her ear as she did so. Natalie didn't blame him for being withdrawn and silent. Witnessing failure after failure, knowing that the next one could be the final hope or the final defeat of that hope? Natalie rubbed at her forehead. _Maybe the conversion rate is off..._ She wished she could have given him a better nightmare to go to that night.


	10. Nightmare Angel

**.: X -- Nightmare Angel :.**

..."Lucrecia"...

Her face faded in and out of his memory, dim and shadowed with each passing nightmare. A tickle of a past he never wanted... Then he heard a voice in a corner of his mind. A voice with a tremble. A voice with a touch of joy and a smile. That voice forbade the face of his past hell from coming.

Vincent beckoned to the darkness again, but it didn't come as completely as before. It was different. Finally, Vincent conceded defeat and allowed the voice to create the nightmare.

It began with a shaded forest and a sunny, warm afternoon. The Sleeping Forest. Vincent hesitantly stepped forward, looking intently for the owner of the voice that continued to tell stories of history interwoven with fun and discovered mysteries. There was a melodious ring of laughter, and a shadow passed behind a tree. Vincent moved toward it without realizing he did so.

"Lucrecia?" he called.

The laughter stopped, and the warmth of the forest drifted to a sudden chill. The abrupt change made Vincent's stomach tighten. He stepped forward when the shadow passed behind another tree, reaching that tree just as the shadow passed behind another.

"Wait! Where are you going? What do you want from me?"

He heard a soft cry of sorrow and moved toward the sound. There was only emptiness and forest. Vincent searched, his movements quick and jerky. A deep, hidden part of him wanted this shadow, but he didn't know where to search. Or by what name to call to it, even though that 'something' had him by the very soul and refused to release it's grip.

"Please. Forgive me," the shadow whispered on the breeze.

Vincent stepped out into the open, looking to the canopy of the trees in hopes he would find it. It was gone, and only the murmur of its continued tears remained behind; the cold tears of mourning.

"Forgive you? Forgive you of what? Who are you?"

The forest scene faded to blackness and the silence began to eat at his sanity...

Natalie stared at the Shinra mansion for a long time before finally deciding to go in. Her throat constricted, a warning to the tears lurking under her emotional surface, and she cleared her throat as she climbed the stairs to the room that would lead to the spiral staircase. _Okay, Nat. You can do this. Sure, communication isn't your thing, but how hard can it be?_ Not too hard if he was in the box. She could say anything to the box. If he was just sitting on it, though...

Natalie cleared her throat again, steering her mind quickly away from any hint of what could or could not be.

As she made her way down the staircase and down the corridor her pace began to slow and her thoughts came more and more quickly. _No. I can't stop. I promised myself that I would honestly try. In everything. He deserves that chance at least._ She came to stand outside the door to his tomb and simply stared at the door. _So what are you going to do? Pretend you don't see the agony on his face with each failure? That's not an option, and you know it._

She took in a slow breath and opened the door, closing it very softly behind her. His coffin was closed, but there was something heavy and distraught in the air. It wasn't the same. It was almost suffocating in its intensity. _Okay, Nat. You have to decide. Do you keep on? Or do you... Do you stop?_

Natalie shook her head, lifting her hands to hide her face.

"Vincent, I don't know what to do," she said, voice muffled through her hands. "I meant to talk to you before, but I didn't know how. I don't do well in situations like this. It's always been a fault of mine, preferring to bury my head in my work rather than face the problem and deal with it.

The silent intensity lessened to suspicious listening.

Natalie lowered her hands and focused glimmering green eyes on the coffin. "I more than likely could have saved myself some confrontations while working at Bone Village if I had chosen to speak before the situation got out of hand. They were ugly; let me tell you that right away. That was one of the reasons I left the dig so many times."

The silence itched at her brain, and she lowered her gaze to the absent kicking of her booted toes against the crypt floor. "It wasn't completely my fault," she continued. "The head digger was a bone-head, no pun intended. The last straw was when he would go tromping around the dig site in those god-awful shoes of his and then be as mad as a who-knows-what when something showed up with a fresh break. Blamed us every time. Well, I finally had enough. I stomped right up to him and told him what for. He was so busy trying to think of a comeback that wouldn't make him look like an idiot that I was able to pack up and leave. He still hadn't said anything by the time I walked past him." She smirked. "You should have seen the look on his face!"

"Lucrecia?"

The smile vanished and she looked sharply toward the coffin, face pale. _Is that all I am to him? A memory of her because I knew her once? Because I'm a scientist like she was?_ Natalie dropped her head and clenched her hands together. _I should have known better. They had something special, and she'll always be in his memories because of how he feels responsible..._ She shook her head. _It's too late, Nat. It's too late._

Natalie turned for the door, a tear escaping her control.

"Wait. Where are you going? Why are you here? What do you want from me?"

"I..." Natalie's voice broke off, and she swallowed hard. She didn't even know. Did she want him to satisfy her seemingly impossible romantic dreams? Did she want him to need her? Or did she simply want to have him indebted to her in a way he wouldn't be indebted to anyone else. She shook her head. _I can't do that to him. It's not fair. No one should have that kind of control over somebody else. Natalie, you've been taking advantage of him._

A sob broke through her reserve as she rushed again toward the door, fumbling with the handle with both hands before finally yanking it open. Her eyes had already so filled with tears that she couldn't see the coffin as she glanced toward it with a yearning expression. "Please. Forgive me."

She pulled the door shut and ran down the corridor, tears dropping from her cheeks to the floor below.

...Vincent pushed off the cover, sitting up with a gasp as he gripped the sides of his coffin. The room was empty, and no shadow hovered on the other side of the door. No voice whispered. No laughter sounded. No tears were shed. Vincent vaulted from the coffin to open the door of the room with a feeling of desperation. The hallway was empty-- _There!_

Vincent bolted for the staircase as the footsteps became more and more faint. The room at the top of the spiral staircase was empty, as were the room and hallway beyond. Dread rose up to choke him, and he fought it back as he hurried down the main staircase to the front doors of the Mansion. The walkway empty; the gate securely closed.

Vincent slowly stepped forward. His eyes narrowed as they examined all. No shadows. He had almost turned away when he heard a door shut. He raised his head sharply and vaulted into the air, hovering quite still as he attempted to gauge from which direction it had come.

The inn.

Vincent dropped to the ground. _The inn._ He clenched his jaw and turned away, but he couldn't move toward the door of the Mansion. _If the shadow from the strange nightmare was Natalie... What does that mean? How could she have entered that place where only I go? How could she have controlled what I saw? How could she have heard my questions?_

The sound of the door opening again made him stiffen, but he still couldn't move. Then there were footsteps coming closer... closer... closer... They stopped. The footsteps began again, more hesitant this time, and halted directly behind him.

"I've come to say good-bye."

Vincent turned sharply. Natalie stood a mere foot away. Her curls tousled, her cheeks wet, and her eyes red with crying. "Why?"

Natalie looked down, making a slight gesture with trembling hands. "I'm... I should have known better than to..." Natalie covered her lips when a sob broke free, and she turned away. "It's better if I go," she finished in a choked voice.

Panic flickered, bombarding his hope with terror. "No. It isn't."

"Yes, it is. If I go, you can sleep and not worry about life. It's easier. I... I can't do this anymore." Her voice faded into tears.

"Why?"

Natalie wiped the tears from her face and lifted her chin, straightening her shoulders as she faced him. Her green eyes glimmered as they held his amber ones. "Because it might not work. Because it might work. And if it does? What if my theory doesn't? What if... You might die."

"My death would be better than living the remainder of my existence in that box."

"But I don't want you to die," Natalie cried, her hands stretched out in front of her. "Can't you see that? If it didn't work, I could live with that. At least you'd be here. Breathing. Dreaming. But if I killed you..." She shook her head as she lowered her hands. "I... I couldn't live with that."

Vincent regarded her. "It doesn't matter if I die--"

"It does matter!" Natalie protested. She took a firm hold of each of his arms as she stared up into his red eyes. She gave him a shake. "Dammit, Vincent, it matters to me!"

Vincent's eyes glowed. "Then do it."

Natalie cringed and released her hold on him, turning away as her voice choked on a sob.

Myriads of arguments and fears pulled Vincent back, but he shrugged them off and stepped after her. Unfamiliar emotions of uncertainty and fear bombarded him as he gently placed his hands on her arms to turn her to face him.

"I couldn't save Lucrecia, and that haunts me. If you leave without attempting to save me, your life will become a collection of regrets and bitter suppositions. Doubts will plague you. Self-hatred will darken you until you won't resemble, in the least, what you once were."

Natalie closed her eyes, tears again cascading down her cheeks. "But if you die..."

"It will not be death, Natalie," he pressed. "It will be freedom."

Natalie choked on another sob. Then she stepped forward to envelop him in a firm embrace, pressing her cheek firmly against his chest. Vincent stood solemnly still for a long moment before wrapping his own arms around her, remembering a similar embrace witnessed. Shared between Lucrecia and Hojo.

Vincent clenched his jaw and closed his eyes, violently pushing away the memory. "I've waited too long..." Vincent's voice surprised him. It wasn't cold and distant. There was a quiver of emotion. A hint of tightness.

Natalie raised her eyes slowly to meet his. Dread and terror shone in her gaze. Then Vincent saw a flash of panic as Natalie pushed away. He held her arms.

"Please," Natalie said in a desperate tone as she wriggled her arms within his firm grasp. "Let me go. Please."

Vincent examined her face in confusion.

"Please, Vincent. Let me go." Natalie's voice trembled with fresh tears. "I can't do this. I can't..."

"Do what?"

"I don't want to hurt you! I... I-I can't lo--" Natalie's mouth clicked shut as her face paled to a soft shade of yellow and her movements ceased. Her eyes glazed, and her arms went limp.

Again, Vincent didn't understand the reaction. She looked as if she would retch. He cupped her chin with his one normal hand, and her glossy eyes met his. He examined her expression with confusion and a growing irritation. "What is the matter with you? Is caring for me so despicable that you must run and hide at the first hint of tender feelings shared? Am I such a monster?"

No reaction.

Vincent pushed her away. Natalie stumbled back a step, her body now rigid. His rage grew to spark in his eyes, and they glowed a dangerous shade of crimson. "You woke me, woman, and now you play me for a fool? Was it your intention to toy with me as a cat with the mouse before tasting its blood? Did you wish to see how vulnerable I would permit myself to become before I allowed you to splice and manipulate that which truly holds your interest?"

Natalie's shade of yellow became green.

"I've come from my coffin for your experiment only to be chased back by the very brand of scientist who made that black sarcophagus my home. Have you no defense? Nothing to say?"

Natalie crumpled to her knees, vomiting so fiercely that she convulsed with each wave of nausea and coughed after each vicious retch. Vincent knelt, the rage passing to reveal the fear that had fed it. He steadied her as she gagged, doing his best to comfort her through the waves even when nothing surfaced but air and deep-seeded misery. When the fit passed, her skin felt chalky and clammy as she muttered nonsensical phrases. She could barely hold her head up as she collapsed against him.

Vincent clenched his jaw as he held her. "Dammit, woman, I've waited for someone... for anyone to care about the hell I eagerly fled to each night. Don't leave me now," he muttered.

"I-I'm sorry," she murmured, her hand clutching a portion of his black silk shirt. "I didn't mean to. I-I didn't know... I didn't know what I was doing. It was the dream. I know it was. I was scared. I'm always scared. I don't want to be scared anymore."

Natalie murmured similar phrases as she sunk further into a type of delirium so hauntingly familiar. Tremors came in waves throughout her entire body, and her teeth began to chatter so violently that he thought they might break. Vincent unclasped his cape and wrapped her into it, gently lifting her to carry her to the inn.

He made his way upstairs and into her room, carefully placing her under the covers of her bed and adjusting them around her trembling form.

A basin of water stood on the dresser to the right of the bed. Vincent soaked a rag and wiped the bile from her mouth. The action drew Natalie's attention, making her eyes flutter open. She smiled briefly, and then she moaned as her eyes rolled back in her head. Vincent clenched his jaw and tossed the rag into the basin.

"It was the dream," Natalie mumbled again and again. "You always do in the dream. I was scared. I don't want to be scared anymore. If you just say that, I won't be scared anymore. I didn't know you were going to say that. It scared me."

Helplessness rose within Vincent as he watched her greenish face twist into hundreds of expressions. From fear to happiness to agony and back again. He leaned forward, resting his hands against the bed as he continued to watch her. "And so you dream of me. What life have you had that makes you care for a monster? What kindness blossoms within that makes you want to put right this blackened soul? Why do you so desire to save me?"

Natalie rocked her head from side to side as her hands occasionally flew outward to grope the air, searching for something that would seemingly give her peace. Vincent caught it with his human hand, but her hand fluttered within his grasp like a butterfly, ceasing only after several failed attempts at freedom. His claw carefully smoothed her now damp curls from her face. Once, he allowed himself to caress her cheek. When he did so, Natalie sucked in a breath as her head ceased its rapid movement from side to side.

"Vincent, we need to talk," she choked out.

The sudden clarity of speech surprised him. He examined her expression. Natalie's eyes were still closed, drifting rapidly from side to side under her lashes. "About?"

"About us."

Intrigue blossomed. "Us?" A sudden sense of fear radiated from her, and Vincent again caressed her cheek in an effort to soothe it. "What needs to be said that makes you afraid?"

Natalie's countenance firmed. "I can't see you anymore."

Vincent raised an eyebrow. "Oh?" Vincent smoothed more curls from her face, watching her expressions with an odd and twisted sense of awe at their complexity. Then a continued spark of fear caught his attention. "You fear yourself," he realized.

Natalie rolled over, pulling her hand from his grasp to wrap her arms around her. "It just wouldn't work, Vincent. I care about you, yes, but..."

Vincent raised an eyebrow. Another confession of care. Another wave of fear that preceded and followed it, just as before. "But?"

"I don't know anymore. I'm just so afraid."

And that Vincent understood that fear birthed an unexpected emotion of compassion, warming his normally cold soul as he leaned toward her ear. "It's all right to be afraid," he whispered. "Aren't we all, at one point or another?"

Natalie rolled onto her back again, turning her head toward him with an air of expectancy. Vincent examined her expression in confusion. After a moment or two, the expectancy dwindled to leave regret and sadness. Natalie turned her head away, and her face twisted in an agonized frown. Her spirit seemed to distance itself from him.

Vincent took hold of her hand. It fluttered within his grasp.

"No. It's not supposed to be like that. Something's wrong. He's not here. Where are you? Vincent? Vincent?" Her head twisted from side to side and, this time, her entire body began to writhe.

"I'm here."

Natalie's eyes fluttered open. Her color became less green. "Vincent?"

"Yes."

Natalie smiled groggily, rolling onto her side as she pulled his hand to her cheek resting on the pillow. She closed her eyes. "You were supposed to kiss me. You always do. Always."

Vincent analyzed her face. Her pallor was much improved, but she still seemed to drift from dreamworld to reality and back again. It seemed the only way to release her from the dream was to finish it. Vincent hesitated. There had been no woman after Lucrecia. He brushed a clawed finger lightly across Natalie's forehead, again noticing she didn't cringe from the touch... He leaned forward and cautiously touched her lips with his.

Vincent took in a breath of surprise at the rush of emotional freedom caused by the soft and warm touch. He pulled back to stare down at her in shock. Natalie wore a simple smile as she slept.

"I have found the tool for my cure, then. Or rather, you found me. Fool that I am, I would have chased you away with my rage. But... But you didn't run. You faced me in my darkest fury and reacted this way. Your broken heart doing this." He tightened his grip on her hand. "Will you be my cure? Or my will you simply be a release from this curse to a final blackness?"

Natalie's eyes slowly opened. She met his gaze and sleepily smiled, bringing up a hand to brush his hair from his face. "I won't leave," she whispered. She yawned suddenly and nestled her cheek against his hand once again. "I won't leave until I cure you."

"Sleep now. The cure will wait."

Natalie yawned again. "I love you, Vincent. Don't forget that," she murmured.

Vincent cringed. Then he closed his eyes, shaking his head as he lowered his chin. How could he forget a spoken doom?

Vincent adjusted his perch on the top of the partially dismantled Mako reactor nestled on the summit of Mt. Nibel. A storm rumbled and sparked in the distance causing Vincent's scowl to darken. All dangerous subjects were kept in the background, safely aloof. His only thoughts were of the coming storm that evening and the rain that would again come to freshen the planet. Occasionally, a snippet of a statement or a tickle of her laugh would slip through the tight control. Vincent would tense, harshly pushing it away with a toss of his head.

Confusion goaded him to anger, but he knew it served to protect him.

Vincent clenched his jaw. Fear had never been a part of his life before. Not as a Turk, and not as a-- Vincent flinched, changing his dark gaze to the dented metal on which he crouched. Natalie's questions and statements always went too readily to what he normally kept hidden. The reliving of it, with her so close and listening, was something he hadn't ever experienced. _Not since Lucrecia._ Maybe not even then. His memories of that time had long since faded into an odd oblivion.

Natalie listened so intently, with the heartbreak for what he'd undergone clearly brimming in her green eyes. The compassion. The understanding. _Did I ever receive those while in the service of Shinra? Did the victims of Shinra's 'justice' ever look at me as she had? With empathy and..._ And something he was afraid to remember. A collection of words spoken.

Vincent clenched his claw into a fist, staring down at it with an empty expression. _She didn't flinch. Again and again, she didn't flinch. Has anyone done that but her?_

So many times, when Vincent had touched her with the artificial claw, Natalie hadn't given even a remote sign of disgust. Instead, there had been acceptance and something more. Some expression of instantaneous normalcy had glittered in her eyes, as if she had missed that aspect of her life to suddenly find it--

A fragment of her voice drifted past the walls of his existence, and he grasped it. 'I've been looking for you too long to turn away now,' she had said. 'I love you, Vincent. Don't forget that.' Yes. She said that too, while drifting on the end of a dream.

Vincent looked up, gazing at the evening sky with narrowed eyes. _How can loving me be anything but a nightmare?_

Vincent stood sharply, leaping from roof section to roof section with a grace and ease that had become second nature. He landed on the ground below, a puff of dust rising from his boots as he remained crouched. With each attempt to dismantle his confusion, it doubled. It only lessened when she listened to his words and dug deeper to another hidden meaning.

Vincent grumbled under his breath before slowly straightening and making his way toward the door that would lead him from the summit of Mt. Nibel. Away from the summit, yes, but toward his greatest fear.

Her.

Natalie Long would very likely be his salvation. But in what way? In the reverting to his original form? Or in the softening of the guilt and shame? Vincent clenched his jaw. _Why should I fight that which I want? That is the question I voiced, and the question that doomed me. She is too naïve. Too innocent of the world. She doesn't understand. She never will._

Yet the open expression in her eyes belied the statement he so desperately wanted to believe. After all, if he believed she would never understand, wouldn't that make it easier for him to hide himself away? To deny his desire and bury himself from the reminders of the normal life that had once been his? She seemed so willing to give it to him. So eager to tap into his very heart and soul because she was convinced they held the key to her own purpose.

_Purpose. Didn't I once have that luxury?_ Now he had nothing but the interest of a love-starved professor infatuated with the mystery that surrounded his existence. A mystery she understood. A mystery she relished as an adventure in life... Had anyone ever delighted in any aspect of his existence?

Vincent grumbled again, annoyed that his mind led him in circles. Giving him no peace in the action. _Will peace be waiting for me if I return?_ It was highly unlikely. Peace retreated each time he watched her expression. There was only confusion and an intoxicating addiction to watch the emotions dance across her face. That had chased him away from her side as she slept, safely hidden within a dream.

That and the overwhelming desire to again touch her warm lips.

And again...

...And again...

Vincent pushed away the cannibalistic thoughts with a ferocious toss of his head. _She won't remember. It was only a dream. Something that will have faded with the dawning of the new day. Some future hope that she believes will never come._

Bittersweet. Kindling hope. Feeding dread.

But how could he draw her close when it could mean another life hurt? _If I should die... she herself said she couldn't bear it._ But it was too late. He saw the hold he had on her. Each time she said his name, the tenderness was there. Each time she saw his face and held his gaze, the devotion was there amidst her fear at the power of her emotion. To turn away from that would wound her sensitive heart as much as that of his death.

_Why not surrender?_

Vincent's dread rose again, but he beat it back. _Perhaps the cure to my existence isn't so much in the discovery of a way to take back my former life, but in the acceptance of a seemingly impossible attraction. Maybe the way to cure me is to... _Vincent felt the blood drain from his face. The question lingered, hovering in every aspect of who and what he was as he attempted to ignore not only its continuing presence, but also the silence the question brought to his mind.

Natalie slowly stretched, wiping a bit of wetness from the corner of her mouth before lifting her hands above her head. She had a tendency of drooling when she slept, and it irritated her to no end. She released a deep breath and opened her eyes.

A slight movement by the window caught her attention. Vincent stood staring across the scenery of Nibelheim, arms crossed.

Natalie sat up in surprise. "Oh!" Vincent turned his face toward her. His amber eyes were guarded.

Natalie flushed. "I didn't expect to see you. Not after... well, you know."

"Yes."

Natalie cleared her throat as she lowered her gaze to her hands.

"Natalie."

Natalie's eyes widened. _Oh dear God, he said my name._ She slowly turned her head toward him. He still stood by the window. His arms still crossed. His eyes still guarded. But there was something different about his expression. "Y-Yes?"

"What do you remember?"

"I said that..." _No lies._ "I said that I couldn't keep trying to fix the generator. I said... I said it matters to me what happens to you. I... I think I remember you got angry with me." She lowered her eyes again. "I remember a lot of things. What exactly did you want me to remember?"

"What happened here?" he pressed.

Natalie cleared her throat. "I remember I had an interview. I remember... I remember you weren't here to share the laughter." Vincent didn't respond, so she forced herself to raise her eyes. "I don't know what you want me to tell you, Vincent."

"You don't remember what happened after our conversation outside Shinra Mansion?"

Natalie paled. "Why?" she asked softly. "What happened?"

Vincent regarded her a moment. "You relived a dream."

Natalie's eyes widened in horror. "What?" she whispered.

Vincent approached where she sat on the side of her bed. "'Vincent, we need to talk,'" he quoted. "'About?' I asked. 'About us,' you replied." He paused, watching her reaction. "You know it?"

Natalie barely nodded. Her eyes still captured by his. _Not the dream. Anything but that._

"You admitted you were afraid." Vincent knelt in front of her. "I said that it was all right to be afraid. After all, even I'm afraid."

Natalie focused sharply on his face. "What?"

"Of you. Afraid because... because of what I feel."

Natalie's pale complexion yellowed.

Vincent examined her face and eyes before reaching forward to touch her cheek with his golden-gloved claw. She sucked in a breath and closed her eyes, tears raining down her cheeks. "This claw," he said a bit gruffly. "This monstrosity has caused no amount of horror and disgust in those who look on me. You are the only one I've met who feels pleasure at the touch of its cool exterior."

Natalie flinched away and hid her face in her hands. "No..."

Vincent pulled them away. "That acceptance made me agree to kiss you. I believed I did it only so that you would sleep, it seemed the only key to end the fantasy, but I knew it would be different. It was a beginning. An answer. A question. A hundred different things that caused no end of confusion and fear."

Natalie shook her head. "Please don't say anymore..." she said in a voice filled with tears. "I want to wake up now. I can't stand anymore. Please. Let me wake up. Let me wake up..." Her voice broke on the sobs.

Vincent recognized the terror at the possibility of being trapped inside another nightmare. Beginning to enjoy it while knowing and fearing that when it came time to wake, the pleasant life would cease to exist. Yes, he recognized the misery.

"Natalie." Vincent released her hands to cup her face, ignoring her frantic grasp and pull on his wrists. "Natalie, this is reality."

"No. No, it can't be," she choked out with a slight shake of her head. Tears escaped her closed lids. "Let me go. Please... Let me wake up. I can't keep doing this. Dreams aren't enough. They aren't. Please," she sobbed frantically. "Please let me wake up."

"Wake? From a dream you've wanted to become real?" he whispered.

And Vincent had to fight back the fear of the rush he knew would come as he leaned forward to touch her lips with his. Her grip on his hands tightened along with her choked protest at the warmth and the hesitant softness, and she again attempted to pull his hands from her face. The act one of desperation.

"No," she whimpered against his lips, her breath beckoning him forward again. "I can't. Please."

Another whispered plea and another whispered touch of lip.

And again.

Then yet again.

Each time their lips met it lasted a little longer, exploring a little deeper past the fear. That terror continued to pull him away, but the memory of the touch and the warmth and softness would call him back for another taste. Then another. And a little more. Before he realized what happened, the touch of her lips and breath was his only focus.

His only need.

Vincent's hands caressed her face as wave after wave of light burst inside his head. Each deep and intense motion of her mouth against his brought another eruption. Each caress of her fingers on his face deafened him to the outside world. Their submergence into his hair banished the cold and briefly silenced the voices within.

A sob suddenly broke from Natalie's lips. Vincent raised his head, opening his eyes to focus on her face. Tears cascaded down her cheeks to drip from her lowered lashes as cry after choked cry broke free. Vincent's throat tightened as he watched her, helplessness refusing him any words. Instead, he pulled her to her feet and drew her close. She moaned, and the sobs shook her entire body.

Vincent pulled her closer still as he caressed her soft curls, desperately trying to protect her from a misery he understood all too well. He closed his eyes when she tightened her arms around him, relishing the intensity of emotion that thrashed within. It was all coming back; how to be human; how to be gentle; how to care for someone who wanted nothing more than to be needed...

Submission had been a surprisingly easy answer.


	11. Conversions

**.: XI -- Conversions :.**

Natalie released a slow and deep breath as she adjusted her arms around him. Around Vincent. Real. Alive. Afraid and feeling. She closed her eyes and sighed again. "So what do we do now?" she whispered. "I've never been here before in my dreams, Vincent. I don't know what to do next. I don't know how to act." She finally looked up to meet his amber gaze. She shook her head. "I don't know anything."

Vincent stared down at her in silence, his expression mirroring her own uncertainty and fear.

"I don't know about you," she said quietly as she lowered her head against his chest again, "but these past few days have been glorious. Being with you. Being with your friends. Seeing you together... I don't want it to end. But." She sighed. "But I need to keep trying, don't I? I need to finish what I've started. Because you've asked me to. Because I don't want to be tormented by the 'what if's. I want you to have a chance at the happiness you deserve. The chance to be free from that coffin..."

Silence beckoned the pair until Vincent suddenly said, "You've fallen in love with a monster and fear that when it's changed to a man, you will no longer care for him."

Natalie closed her eyes. "Maybe," she whispered.

Vincent adjusted his arms around her while releasing a slow and deep breath. She remained within the grasp, trusting in the protection of that simple touch.

"With that confession, I'm tempted to stay as I am simply to spite what Hojo believed to be impossible," he confessed. "But the desire to be what I was overpowers everything else. I want to make my own choices." His grip tightened around her. "Do your best, Natalie," he said in a low voice, "and regret nothing. Strange as it may seem coming from me, I have faith in you."

Natalie flinched, and the action caused him to push back.

Vincent's amber eyes searched her face. "What was that?"

Natalie's gaze refused to meet his. Instead, she took his hands in hers. "A confession, I suppose," she told him.

"A confession? Of what?"

Natalie sighed. "Of everything, I suppose." She cleared her throat and gave his hands a squeeze. "Throughout my entire school career I wanted to find someone who would want me for who I was. All my quirks. All my crazy notions of grandeur. All my dreams and fantasies." She peeked up at him. "You see, you need to understand that my life up to that point had been lonely because I hadn't ever been interested in anything outside history. When I heard about you... You were surrounded by history and tragedy and... and you were lonely because you were betrayed by the ones you loved. You were an outcast because someone in power abused his position."

Natalie gave his hands another squeeze as she swallowed the tears. "My heart broke at that. I mean, I had found someone who had no hope at all of finding someone to care about them. So, I decided to learn more. I wanted to... I wanted to fix that tragedy. I wanted to reverse your future." Natalie lowered her head as her heart balked at the confession. "What I didn't admit at the time was that I wanted to learn more so that I would have a reason to care. The fantasy of nurse falling for patient taken to a new and twisted level. I guess I believed it was a safe relationship. I believed it impossible for you to meet me. After all, I knew you'd never be involved in anything that interested me. I knew I was safe."

Natalie's voice choked, and Vincent's hands tightened on hers. Her lips lifted in a slight smile and she raised her head. His amber eyes glowed as they watched her face. "When I became interested in what I studied and not just who, it caught me completely by surprise. When the surprise faded, in came a new fantasy: what if I could cure you and make you feel something akin to the love I fancied I felt? The fantasy filled me with hope, making me do something foolish. I actually began looking for you. Something I had promised I would never do."

Natalies eyes widened. "For the first time in my life I wanted something more," she admitted, voice awed. "I wanted to be happy. I wanted to share my interests with someone. But it was more than that, I wanted to share my life with someone. I wanted the fantasy to become real because I was tired of living in a dream whenever I wanted love or tenderness..." She lowered her gaze. "But when I started dreaming of what our life together could be like, it hurt. Seeing it made me want it even more, and when I wanted it more, it hurt to know that it was impossible to have. After all, you were in love with Lucrecia. You always had been. You always would be in my mind."

Natalie's lips quivered upward in another smile. "Then I... then I realized I didn't care about that. Somewhere along the fancies and the research and the learning I had come to care about you more than my work," she whispered, finally looking up to watch him. "Somehow, while reading your histories and your miseries, I had fallen in love with you. Every bit of it. The blackness. The light. The anger. The laughter... Monster, man, experiment. All of it."

Vincent remained silent, his eyes glowing with a strange expression.

"And if curing one means that it might kill all of you, I don't know if I can do that. I don't want to hurt you. You've had that enough in your life."

Vincent held her gaze in the silence that followed, still standing so close that she could smell everything about him. His musk of mystery. His heady aroma of intensity and depth. His sweet scent of humanness and passion.

"We've been down this path before," he finally said, voice gruff. "For most of your young life you've wanted to change what Hojo did to me. Now is your chance. For all of my existence as this monster I've wished for my previous life. Now is my chance." His hands gripped her upper arms. "I understand the risks, Natalie, and I accept them as worth the end result. Now you must come to a decision as well. Whom do you care for? For me? Or for the monster shell that has trapped me?"

Natalie blinked up at him, tears choking off the voice that would have given him the words she wanted to say. Instead, she kissed his mouth and his cheek and held him close as she desperately tried to fight back the sobs.

Vincent pulled her tighter against him. "There is your answer. You came to love my soul, and my soul will be the same... The same?" he whispered. "I lie. The blackness begins to crumble..." Vincent touched her neck with his lips, causing a shiver. "No. It will never be the same."

Natalie silently cried against him.

The quad glared at the latest repaired version of the generator. Late afternoon was quickly approaching and they were hesitant to face another failure before retiring to start again the next morning. Throughout the day, Yuffie and Red had continuously sent Natalie and Vincent sidelong glances. It was as if they could sense something had changed and couldn't put a name to it. Even Natalie had felt the difference between her and Vincent. A distance that wasn't as great. A coldness that wasn't as chilling. An expression that wasn't as guarded.

Vincent crossed his arms. "You mentioned conversion rates," he reminded. "Should we venture back to the Library and search the book stocks before giving it power?"

Yuffie scrubbed at the back of her neck. "Screw that. I'm going to go to Rocket Town and drag Cid's good-for-nothing ass here to do it himself. Come on, Red. Let's go."

Natalie absently waved as Red and Yuffie moved away and out of the clearing toward town. Natalie sighed and tucked an errant curl behind an ear. "I don't know. We're running low on parts..." She looked over at Vincent, meeting his scrutiny. "I suppose we should, to be safe." Natalie smiled. "I did do a bit of a rush on the 'cram job', so it would be a good idea for me to refresh it all."

Vincent smirked. "That you understand enough to do what you have makes me wonder just how much of a 'cram' it was."

Natalie waved it away while wrinkling her nose and looking back to the generator. "If I understood it as well as you think I do, we wouldn't be having our current problem."

"Oh? Then why have we been able to get further than Cid, an engineer?"

"Well, because... I... I mean..." Natalie laughed and looked over to meet Vincent's mildly amused expression. "All right, all right. I conceed. I'm a genius. Happy?"

Vincent's eyebrow twitched the same as his lips. "Hm."

Natalie laughed again and took up his hands, caressing smooth golden surface and slightly calloused skin both. "Uh-oh. He doesn't believe that I believe me. That's liable to cause a problem." And she could have sworn that she heard a chuckle from him. "I'll do better at cutting myself some slack. All right?" Natalie's expression grew serious. "But that means you need to do the same for yourself."

His eyebrow twitched higher.

"Don't play innocent with me, Mr. Valentine," she scolded. "You know exactly what I'm talking about. No more looking back at what you've done or not done. You can't change what has already happened. So the less you look back, the less you trip over your own feet." She smiled. "Or mine."

Vincent's smirk returned. "Yes, Professor."

Natalie's smile blossomed to a laugh, and she moved closer as she released his hands and began absently smoothing and straightening his red cape and black silk shirt. "I'm sorry, Vincent. I seem to slip into my role of Professor a bit too easily, don't I? I suppose I like to lecture." She peeked up at him to notice his continual yet slight smile. "You would tell me if you minded, wouldn't you? Seems to me that you're as tactless and blatantly honest as I am."

"They say honesty is the best policy," he reminded.

"True." She fully lifted her gaze as she wrapped her arms around his neck, stepping still closer. "What about stubbornness?" she asked, expression serious. "I can be stubborn, too. Believe me. It took a lot of determination to track you down and get you to admit I existed."

Vincent's lips twitched as he rested his hands on her hips. "I knew you existed. After all, you returned each day to usher me into another private and well-guarded section of your life. I suppose that was what first intrigued me: your willingness to impart such secrets to someone who ignored you."

"Well it's nice to finally know you actually listened," she told him, a solitary finger coiling a bit of his hair around it. "Though it would have been polite for you to have at least opened the lid to make some comment or other. We lecturers enjoy commentary, you know."

Vincent slightly lowered his head, and his breath tickled her face. "I was hoping you would go away," he said a bit roughly.

Natalie chuckled and then stood on tiptoes to give him a feathery kiss while whispering "I didn't, did I?" against their soft warmth.

Vincent's arms tightened around her--

"What the hell!"

Natalie gave a startled jump as she sharply turned, stepping backward onto a stone and tripping in the process. Vincent's agility and quickness of flight was the only thing that kept her from toppling into the rushing river below.

Natalie murmured a "Thank you" as she hung suspended in his arms, keeping her gaze carefully averted from the group that had stumbled upon their intimate moment.

Vincent set Natalie down on the ground before moving to stand protectively in front of her. His eyes held a quiet warning.

Cid was about to comment when Cloud cut in. "We heard from Yuffie and Red that you've been working on a generator, Vincent." He looked beyond the couple. "That must be it."

Natalie rested a hand momentarily on Vincent's back before stepping forward with a glance toward her most recent attempt at success. "Yes, that's it. Unfortunately, we're a bit on the hesitant side to test it." Natalie sighed, and then she moved her gaze back to Cloud. "I think the conversion rate is wrong."

"Conversion rate, huh?"

Natalie looked over at Cid Highwind. He had moved to the piles of rubble positioned around the current generator to rummage through the pieces. His attitude was condescending, just like his tone had been, and it tweaked her temper. "Yes, conversion rate. You're the engineer, Mr. Highwind. I wouldn't think that particular detail would need to be explained to you."

Cid snorted and glanced over at her and Vincent with a crooked smile. "You must be the broad who thinks she can cure this one. I thought you were a reporter."

Natalie arched an eyebrow. "I do a multitude of things, Mr. Highwind. One of them seems to be pulling your butt out of the fire by inventing something in two days that you still haven't done in two months." She felt Vincent place a warning hand on her shoulder. She pressed her lips together. _I know. I know._

Cloud, Shera, and Tifa watched the altercation with silent amusement.

Cid stood slowly, eyeballing her and Vincent as he took a long drag on his cigarette. He blew it out slowly before gesturing toward her. "You've got an attitude, lady."

"Of course I've got an attitude," she said, voice tight. "I've been working for two days straight trying to learn enough about mechanics and electrical engineering to get this blasted thing to stay running longer than an hour. My expertise is in the sciences, Mr. Highwind, so perhaps you'd care to look over the schematics and take over where I left off? That way I can concentrate on solving Vincent's current problem and not yours."

Cid's expression changed to something close to respect. "Two days? You've learned enough about electrical engineering to design, build, and get this contraption running in just two days?" He tossed his cigarette down to squelch it with the toe of his boot. "You deserve an apology from me, professor. I was an ass."

"Yes, but I've run across several of those in my lifetime. Most are worse than you. Don't give it another thought." She looked over at Vincent. "Can you walk me back to the inn?"

Vincent nodded and took her hand, guiding her along the path away from Mt. Nibel as the others mutely looked on.

"You shocked him," Vincent finally said.

"I shocked myself. Of course, I should have known that was going to happen. I get cranky when I'm tired."

"Or embarrassed."

Natalie flushed. "Do you blame me?"

"No. They trod into a delicate situation with the grace of a--"

"A Midgar Zolom," Natalie said, twinkling eyes glancing toward Vincent.

He smiled slightly. "I would say that is aptly put."

She wrapped her arms around his claw and rested her head against his upper arm. Vincent reached over to caress one of her hands as they walked on in silence.

"Shit! That was the spookiest sight I've ever seen," Cid mumbled.

Tifa looked at Cloud with a smile. "You were right," she said.

Shera's face twisted with confusion. "Right? Right about what?"

Cloud smirked. "I knew if we just butt out things would be okay. It's only when I try to help that things get all screwed up."

Cid strode up to them. "You knew about that... that..." He swore a blue streak as he lit another cigarette. "I didn't think he liked women."

Tifa grimaced, sending Cid a dirty look. "Oh shut up, Cid. Just shut up."

Cloud laughed, pulling Tifa away from Cid to send her and Shera back to Nibelheim for the schematics. Then he turned back to Cid. "So, what do you think? Will it work?"

"I don't even know what the hell the damn thing is. How am I supposed to know if it's going to work or not?"

Cloud put a fist on his hip to strike his infamous SOLDIER pose as he stared at the generator. "She said they've had it working for an hour, which is definitely better than nothing."

Cid reluctantly agreed. "Better than I've come up with." He snorted. "Damn. Outwitted by a broad. That's twice."

Cloud chuckled and then gestured toward Nibelheim with a jerk of his head. "Come on. Let's get over to the inn and ask some questions. Be nicer than normal. Okay?"

"I'll be as nice as I damn-well please."

"Okay, if you want Vincent all over you."

Cid grumbled as he followed Cloud toward town. "I won't be able to get used to that sight."

"What are you talking about?"

"Vincent."

Cloud sent Cid a confused glance. "Huh?"

Cid took another long drag from his cigarette. "Kissing a woman." He shivered. "That was a bit too much information for me."

Cloud shook his head with a chuckle. "Maybe you're just mad she didn't go for you first."

Cid swore and sent Cloud a dangerous glare. "That ain't funny, spike boy. I don't need no woman messing up my life."

"Fine. Then leave them alone."

"Who said I was going to do anything?"

Cloud chuckled again. "I didn't say you'd do anything, but I know you're more than willing to say whatever you want."

"If she can't take it, she can leave the room."

"Oh she can take it all right. Or did you forget?" Cloud glanced over at him. "You admitted you were an ass. Remember? You said--"

"I know what I said," Cid snapped after a long phrase of swearing.

Cloud smirked but didn't say anything else.

The door closed after Cid, Shera, and Cloud. Natalie released a deep breath and looked across the table at Vincent. "It's a relief to have them responsible for it."

"Yes, I imagine it is."

Natalie laughed. "Lucky for Cid Red and I did all the hard work. He only needs to find out why it doesn't work."

Vincent watched Natalie's expressions. "What will you do with your new-found freedom?"

Natalie stretched. "Take a nap?"

Vincent smirked. "That sounds to be a wise idea."

She shrugged. "Except now I'm not tired. All I can think about is finally being able to work on my idea."

Vincent nodded. "Understandable."

Natalie held his gaze with a thoughtful one of her own. "Vincent, do you remember anything of the experiments?"

Vincent lowered his eyes to an examination of the claw that rested on the table. "I remember being shot. In this arm, or what may remain of it. There is nothing after that. Only snatches of shadow and light battling against one another."

Natalie stood and moved closer, sitting in the chair beside him. She gently took hold of the claw. "Part of the file in the computer was corrupt, so I couldn't tell if... if this is your arm or a Jenova graft. That will be something I find out soon." She placed his claw back onto the table, but her hands remained on its cool surface. "I know what I want to find," she whispered.

Vincent covered her hands with his, meeting her gaze. "Whatever you find won't matter."

Natalie smiled. "You're right." Her smile faded. "I just don't like the thought of Hojo playing god on you. On anyone. He should have fixed his own problems."

Vincent smiled briefly, giving her hands a squeeze. Then he sat back in the chair and tightly crossed his arms. "Natalie."

She continued to smile at him, enjoying the sound of her name in his voice, and rested her chin in her hand. "Hmm?"

Vincent actually smiled slightly before speaking. "I would like to meet your parents."

Natalie blinked and sharply sat up. "What?"

"I said--"

"I heard what you said; I just can't believe it. Why?"

Vincent raised an eyebrow. "Why do I want to meet your family?"

Natalie nodded. "I know that in conversations past I haven't exactly painted them to be the most endearing people in the world."

"I haven't one of my own, so why wouldn't I want to meet yours?"

"I-I don't know. I just... I never thought you would want to." She motioned toward him. "You've been alone for so long, I suppose I didn't want to push them on you."

Vincent smirked. "Certainly they will want to meet the object of your... search."

Natalie leaned back in her chair and picked at a nail. Vincent regarded her so intensely that she flushed.

"They never knew you searched for me, did they?"

"No." She could feel him examining her expressions.

"And why is that?"

Natalie cleared her throat. "I don't talk to my family much."

Vincent continued to regard her. "You hold their determination against them," he observed. He leaned forward in the chair. "But why? They only wanted what was best for you. That determination is the same as your own to give me a better future."

Natalie raised her eyes to send him a slight frown. "Then they should have been determined to be a family that supported my final decision, instead of the one that turned away from me when what I wanted wasn't what they wanted." She looked away. "If they wanted to talk, they could have sent me a letter, or dropped by a dig site, or submitted a note to one of my publishers. They haven't."

Vincent continued to examine her face. "Natalie, why have you voluntarily kept yourself alone?"

Natalie frowned, tightening her hands into fists as she adjusted her crossed arms. "I told you. As long as they refused to listen to what I wanted, I wasn't going to talk to them."

"I understand that, but why haven't you continued to explain and show why you believed your choices to be the best? Why have you deliberately kept them on the outside?"

Natalie's frown darkened. "Because they didn't care."

"You didn't give them the opportunity."

Natalie's eyes widened as she looked sharply over at him. "I didn't give them the opportunity? You must be joking!"

A golden finger skewered his point into the table-top. "You did not invite their participation. Neither did you invite their understanding."

Natalie's jaw worked.

Vincent reached out to rest a hand on her leg. "Natalie, I understand that rejection is hard for you to take, and I know that you use this distance from your family to protect you from further rejection."

Natalie looked away.

"Natalie, they are your family," he pressed, his grip tightening on her leg. "Don't take them for granted."

She adjusted her crossed arms and sent him a sidelong glance, her frown slowly disappearing. She released a quick breath and slightly nodded. "All right," she sighed. "I'll write them a letter."

Vincent's touch lingered on her leg for a long moment before he pulled back.

Natalie caught it in hers before he completely pulled away. She gave it a squeeze and held his gaze. "But after I cure you."

"Agreed," he said, tone guarded. Then he stood, releasing her hand. "You should rest now. If Cid is successful, tomorrow will be an intense day."

Natalie nodded and slowly stood. "Yes, I suppose I should." She cleared her throat and made her way to the bed to turn down the covers. Vincent watched her in silence. "Where are you going to sleep? Not under a tree, I hope." _So what are you asking, Nat? Are you hoping he'll opt to stay up here with you? To celebrate? To say good-bye to what he is now? One last night together before possibly saying good-bye forever?_ She cleared her throat again and plumped her pillow.

"No, and going to the crypt seems pointless."

Natalie swallowed hard before turning to face him. He still stood near the table, watching her with an almost wary expression. She sat on the edge of the bed and looked down at her hiking boots a moment before bending forward to untie the laces. "I'm sure Cloud will put you up at his place."

_I want you to stay here with me, Vincent. I want you to stay here with me and tell me that I'm doing the right thing. That you're not as scared as I am. I want you to hold me close, so that I can prove it's not a nightmare._ She accidentally tied the laces into knots.

Vincent made his way over to her. He knelt down and gently pushed her hands away. "Yes, he would."

Vincent untied first one shoe and then the other, pulling them free and setting them aside with deliberate motions. Then he began to massage her feet. Natalie stared down at him, gnawing her lower lip to keep herself from asking what she shouldn't ask. She clenched the sheet and blankets of the bed. _Are you ready for this? Do you realize what you're asking and what it would mean?_

"Vincent--"

"Natalie." Vincent looked up to meet her gaze. "Don't ask me to stay."

"Why not? A lot of things are going to happen tomorrow. I'd sleep better if you were here."

Vincent straightened and sat beside her on the bed. "I wouldn't."

She smiled slightly, turning away to rub her palms on the thighs of her jeans. "Okay, so maybe I wouldn't either, but... But it's the last night before our world gets turned upside down. I guess I thought... Oh, I don't know what I thought."

"Natalie..." Vincent faced her, cupping her chin in his hand. "Natalie, making love to you is something I want more than my own life right now. But... But I want you as I was, not as this creation of Hojo. You deserve nothing less."

Natalie's face flamed as she held his gaze.

Vincent released a slow breath and lowered his hand from her face as he looked away. "I should go now. Before I forget."

When he made a move to stand, Natalie took hold of his hand. "Vincent, wait."

Vincent tensed. "Natalie. Please."

Natalie released his hand and clasped hers in her lap. "I know, I know. I... I just want you here with me. There are a lot of good reasons why you should go, but..." She looked over at him. He still faced away. "Just for me? I just want you to hold me, so that I can sleep. Then you can go. Please?"

Vincent faced her then. "My control will not hold, Natalie." Pain and desire made his amber eyes glow.

Natalie took his arm again. "It will," she said as she held his gaze. "I know you, Vincent. It will. I know it will."

He removed her hand with his claw, giving it a gentle squeeze before releasing it. "I am not so certain..." He clenched his hands into fists and shook his head. "No, I don't trust myself. Good night, Natalie."

Natalie sighed. "Good night, Vincent."

He turned at the doorway to watch her before slowly receding down the hallway after closing the door behind him. She slumped onto the bed with a deep breath. "He has more sense than I do," she whispered.

_'Making love to you, Natalie, is something I want more than my own life... But I want you as I was, not as this creation of Hojo. You deserve nothing less.'_

She smiled slightly and laid back on the bed, closing her eyes as she remembered again and again the look in his eyes and the soft caress of his words.


	12. The Choice That Wasn't

**.: XII -- The Choice That Wasn't :.**

Natalie stared at the dimly lit room that would soon take on the daunting task of curing the man she loved. Each book. Each medical note. Each piece of technology. Each previously taken sample of blood and tissue would be put to work, doing what she wasn't sure she wanted to do.

Natalie released a deep breath as she stepped further into the laboratory. It began today. The submerging within her supposed genius to find the key to his freedom. The key that could kill him. The key that could make him hers for the rest of their lives. The key that could do nothing but unlock the humanness that hid within him while his outer shell remained so dark and twisted...

Natalie repressed a sob and wiped the tears from her cheeks as she came to sit at the computer desk. The computer was on and running. Mako free. Pollution free. Hard drive intact. Ready to work. Ready to cure. Ready to finally offer Vincent a realization of his last remaining hope.

"Can I do this?" Natalie whispered as she touched the keyboard.

The answer wasn't there. She knew the answer was in her heart. She would do it, but only because she could sense his growing torment at being so different from her. So not human. He got strength and comfort from the fact she accepted him as he was. He began to feel whole because of her unconditional love, but he still wanted to be what he had been. A man.

"Isn't that what I've always wanted to give him," she pressed as another tear wet her cheek. "Remember? You read all those reports on him and knew this is what you felt you were supposed to do. This was what it was all for. To save him."

Natalie leaned back in the chair, crossing her arms as she looked away from the computer screen. She gnawed her lower lip to keep from sobbing. "Remember the picture, Nat? The Turk? You fell in love with him first. Remember? Now you've met his darker side. The part that people can usually hide. You've met him and fallen in love with him too. There are no surprises in who or what he is. You know it all. You've seen it all. You love it all."

Natalie nodded, closing her eyes as she took in a deep breath. "You're scared. Okay. So is he. You don't want to make him hurt worse. Okay. He can't feel worse. The fact that you're trying is going to make him feel better. Isn't that what you want to do? Make him feel better? Okay. You have. All he wants is for you to try." Natalie took in a deep and ragged breath. "Try. That's it. You've done that your entire life. Remember? And remember how most of your 'trying' has actually worked out? This can too. And if it doesn't? Then it doesn't.

"And if he dies...?"

Natalie lowered her head, pinching the bridge of her nose. That was the one aspect of her treatment that she couldn't move past. She always balked and choked right there, no matter which angle she attacked the possibility from. It mattered. It mattered a lot. And if she thought, for even one moment, that there was a likelihood that it could happen... that he could die, she'd stop. No matter how mad he got. No matter how much he pressed her to try. She wasn't willing to gamble with his life. She wasn't like Hojo, and she never would be.

"I thought I'd find you here." Red came to sit beside her, carefully tucking his tail around his forepaws as he sat and examined her face. "Today is the day."

She nodded, afraid to do anything else.

"I regret that we haven't had a really good opportunity to sit down and talk about things as I'd hoped we could," Red continued in a soft voice. "I do hope you'll allow me to spend some time with you at the dig past Mt. Nibel once everything with Vincent works out. I believe I'll find it fascinating, and I would love to help you any way I can."

"That would be great, Red. Thank you," she whispered. She continued to stare at the computer monitor as the little figures and forms from its hibernation cycle floated about the screen. "Is there something I can do for you?"

Red remained quiet for a long moment before coming to rub his head and shoulders against her hand as it rested on the arm of the office chair. He purred in an attempt to console her. "I thought I could do something for you."

More tears spilled over onto her cheeks. She covered her eyes with one hand as she stroked Red's soft fur with the other. The warmth and velvety softness was a balm to her aching soul, but they encouraged the tears that began to drip onto her pale yellow T-shirt. "It's all happening."

"Yes. Yes, it is." He sat as close as possible to rest his chin on her leg, still purring. "It's a little frightening, isn't it?"

Natalie could barely nod her head. She choked on a quick inhalation of breath as she attempted to calm the sobs. "I don't know whether to be happy or terrified! I mean, I might finally have the chance to put it all right!"

"You don't want to fail." His statement was gentle and probing.

"No. No, I don't. I've always been like this. In everything. I never allowed myself failure. Never allowed myself mistakes." Natalie dropped her hand to her side, looking down at Red as he gazed up at her with an understanding expression. "He doesn't deserve anything but a miracle, and I'm afraid I won't be able to do that. How do I know that I really understand what Hojo did? I don't have the right to use Vincent as an experiment subject. That would make me no better than... than..." She lowered her eyes and covered her face with her hands.

"Than Hojo."

Natalie suddenly dropped her hands to look down at Red with a pleading expression. "I'm going to do this because I love him so much, and I know how much this means to him. I guess I'm just letting myself vent one last time before the moment of truth comes. To give myself that one last chance at mourning... You know?"

Red seemed to smile as he lifted his head from her knee. "I understand. So does he." He paused, examining her tear stained face. "You two have an amazing relationship. One that I haven't seen before. You finish one another, in a way. When he needs strength, you're there to offer it to him. When he needs gentleness and compassion or understanding, again, you're there. It is much the same for you. He offers you strength, tenderness, and a myriad of other emotions I hadn't thought possible from him, all when you need them. Your instincts about the other are uncanny."

Natalie flushed absently tucking a curl behind her ear.

"What do your instincts tell you now?" Red asked.

Natalie took in a long, deep, and slow breath as she looked up at the rafters of the basement laboratory. Cobwebs decorated the chamber in each remote corner, occasionally tickled by a draft from an unseen hole. "They're saying a lot of things."

Red nudged at her leg with his wet nose. "Go on."

"They're saying that he's just as frightened as I am. They're saying that he wants to do this because it's been a dream of his as well as mine. They're saying that he's pushing me to do this because he doesn't want me to have regrets." She sighed again and changed her gaze to Red's. "They're saying that I can do this."

His beautiful eyes twinkled at her. "Then there is your answer. You know what you can do, and it is this: free a trapped soul."

Natalie smiled, tears brimming anew to spill over onto her flushed cheeks. She slid from the chair to her knees and wrapped her arms around Red to give him a fond embrace.

When she pulled back, he pressed his head against hers and caught her gaze. "Never, ever doubt your purpose. That's when the fear comes. You are a brave woman, Natalie. Face down the fear and do what you want to do. Save him."

When Yuffie came into the upstairs room at the inn expecting to find Natalie, she found Vincent staring at his claw with a dark and dangerous expression on his face. She hesitated, not really wanting to get involved with what she was sure was a very deep subject, but then she gave a shrug and stepped forward.

Yuffie pulled up a chair and straddled it. "What's up?"

Vincent lowered his claw and crossed his arms to glower out the window. "Time."

Yuffie frowned in confusion, and then she remembered that Cid had announced the completion of the generator the previous night. "Oh. Nat's going to start today, huh?" Vincent didn't reply, and Yuffie nodded. "Yeah. Thought so. I knew there had to be a reason she wasn't up here. She's at the Mansion, isn't she?"

"Yes. She left early this morning."

"So then what's the problem? I thought you wanted this to happen."

"I do."

Yuffie arched an eyebrow. "You afraid it won't work."

Vincent shook his head. His gaze focused on the well outside. "I have a bad feeling."

"Bad feelings aren't cool, Vinnie."

"I know."

"You think it's about the experiment?"

"No."

"So, you're pretty sure it's going to work?"

"Yes."

Yuffie frowned down at the back of the chair as she tapped her fingers on her arm that rested upon it. "Hm. Creepy."

"Yes."

Yuffie looked up. "You don't think Nat's going to change her mind about you when you're back to normal, do you?" Vincent remained silent. She stood and came to stand beside him. "Dude, Vincent, there is no way in hell that's going to happen. She's crazy for you in a major way. Worse than Tifa and Cloud, if that's possible. C'mon. Don't worry about that."

He still said nothing.

Yuffie grimaced, remembered something Natalie had shown her, and made her way over to the dresser beside her bed. "Here it is." She turned back to Vincent. "Here. Look."

Vincent changed his view to the picture in her hand. He took it from her. "Where did you get this?"

"Nat showed it to me once. When we were talking about you, of course. She got it from her teacher, who got it from his sister, who got it from her best friend..." Yuffie grimaced again. "I can't remember the details. It gets confusing."

"Yes. I remember."

Yuffie gestured to the small picture. "This is you. Right?"

"Yes. When I was a Turk."

"That's when she first heard about you. I think. No, wait. She first heard about you when she read about Hojo's experiment. But I know that's the first time she saw you. That picture. She loves that picture, Vinnie. I've seen the way she looks at it." Yuffie wrinkled her nose. "It makes me wanna hurl, but I've still seen how she looks at it."

Vincent pushed the photo back at her.

"I know what you're thinking, Vinnie, but it does mean something. Don't be dense."

"Yuffie--"

"Save it." Yuffie glowered. "I can see that you just want to feel sorry for yourself or something. Well, I don't have to stay here and listen to it, or watch it for that matter. Deal with it. Okay? I've never seen no one so wild for you then Nat. I've never seen no one so wild for anyone. If you start second guessing everything about you two..." She snorted and took the picture from him with a rough motion. "Hell! Why do I even bother? You'll do what you want anyway."

She stormed from the room, slamming the door behind her. Vincent stared at it for a long moment before looking away. He knew the picture meant a lot to Natalie. It reminded her what had been taken from him. It reminded her what she wanted to give him. His life. He also knew that Natalie's feelings for him wouldn't change if her idea worked. They had become too close in a short amount of time for that to be a danger. What bothered him was his sudden reluctance to go where she waited, and his intense regret at the opportunity he'd surrendered the previous night.

Vincent knew he'd done the right thing in walking away. He cared too much about her feelings to allow her to give herself to what he'd never felt was his true reflection. When he felt her against him for the first time, he wanted to know he was making love to her as a man and not a monster. When she spoke his name in the midst of an intimate embrace, he wanted to caress her with his hands and not a cold and lifeless claw that held no feeling and no tenderness.

He wanted to experience her.

Vincent scowled down at his claw again as a trace of her heady aroma filled his nostrils. He took in a deep breath, and his eyes glowed as he heard her voice again. _'I just want you here with me... Just for me? I just want you to hold me, so that I can sleep...'_ Of all the things she could have asked of him, that one request had been impossible. _Impossible because I want it so deeply._ And the power of his desire terrified him more than the original discovery of his growing fondness. _To have her look at me like that and say my name--_ Vincent pushed it away roughly, balling his fists to do so.

Natalie had said that the Jenova and DNA manipulation done would not affect his offspring. His children. Children to be tutored and schooled in the genetic/cellular sciences. Children to be trained to one day find his cure if Natalie were not successful. Vincent shook his head, squeezing his eyes shut tight with the effort to banish the thoughts. _Bringing a child into the world should be done for an entirely different reason._

Vincent turned sharply from the window and strode from the room. Desperation pouted behind.

Red waited by the gate to Shinra Mansion. Vincent regarded him with a wary gaze. "Red."

"Hello, Vincent. Might I have a word with you before you make your way into the Mansion? It'll only take a moment."

"She has been waiting for me," Vincent said vaguely as he made a move to pass. "Perhaps later."

Red pointedly ignored the subtle hint as he moved into Vincent's path. The scruff of hair on the nape of his neck bristled a bit as he looked up at Vincent. "I need to speak with you. It's important."

"Red--"

"Now," Red intoned with a growl.

Vincent's temper sparked. "No," he said. His tone was just as firm and dangerous. "Not now. I need to go to her. She's been waiting. Again."

Vincent made another move to pass. Red snarled, giving a warning snap of his jaws. Vincent stepped backward. "She will wait. She has done so her entire life. I need to speak with you." Red took a step forward. Vincent backed away. "I don't have any warnings or chastisements or anything that will cause you humiliation. I need to confide something to you that I believe you would want to hear."

Vincent's glower deepened. "Fine. Speak."

The hair on Red's back settled, and his angry expression faded. He looked almost apologetic as he cleared his throat and sat on his haunches. "I'm sorry, Vincent. I didn't mean to lose my temper."

"It's all right."

"No, it isn't, but thank you for accepting my apology." He examined Vincent's face before stepping forward. "Can we go for a walk?" Vincent's impatience must have been obvious. Red gave a nod. "I know. You want to hurry to her, but it will be just a moment. Besides, she's just now setting up. She's not ready for you yet."

Vincent reluctantly acquiesced and fell into step beside Red as he made his way toward Mt. Nibel. "What did you wish to confide?" Red seemed to hesitate a moment, as if he was unsure where to begin. Vincent examined him, and then he refocused his attention to the path ahead of him. "I know she doubts the wisdom of this procedure."

"That isn't what I was going to tell you." Red passed him a look. "You're a bright fellow, Vincent. I knew that you would have already reasoned she'd be overwhelmed with the not-so-pleasant possibilities as to what might or might not happen. If she hadn't already confessed them to you."

"Then what is it?"

"I wasn't sure if she'd told you that she feels as if she is playing at the role of 'Hojo' by experimenting her idea of a cure on you."

Vincent sent Red a sharp glance and halted his progress forward. "Hojo? Why would she believe she resembled that madman?"

Red sat on his haunches, curling his tail around his forepaws as he gave himself time to think of a reply. "Much as I hate to admit it, I see a reason for her fear. You must also admit, Vincent, that she's taking your life into her hands. Isn't that what Hojo did?"

"But this is my choice," Vincent insisted through his wavering calm. "Hojo never gave me such a luxury. She did."

"Did she?"

"What are you saying? Of course."

"Vincent, hear me out." Red gathered his thoughts. "Her mind continues to reason that there was no choice given, on the grounds that she simply offered the possibility of something you already wanted. She knew you wanted freedom from what Hojo made you, and that is what took away your choice."

Vincent clenched his jaw. His muscle twitched wildly. "What should I do to convince her that if I hadn't wanted to do--"

"That is the problem," Red interrupted. "She knew you wanted this. That is why she feels there was no other option for you. You don't care about the danger, therefore there is no choice."

"I do care about the danger!" Vincent snapped with a surprising force of emotion. His amber eyes sparked. "Do you really believe I'm oblivious to the possibility I may be forever without her? Or she without me? Do you believe I wish for her to always lay awake at night wondering if there could have been something different done in order to save my life? Do you believe I want her to be tortured with the fact that she was the cause of my death?"

"No. I don't."

"Then tell me," Vincent raged. "Tell me what I could possibly do to get what I want! Tell me what other option is available to rid me of this mutation that twists my insides with hate and grotesque wickedness. I will never accept it as who I am. I have told her this!"

"I know."

Vincent continued as if Red hadn't spoken. "She must try because it might work. She must try because it is my only option. The only other is to remain as I am. Never knowing if there was a way to win. Never knowing if there was a way to sneer in Hojo's face and say 'I have won against your insanity. Your life is not mine.' That was my choice before. Now I've chosen the possibility of life instead of complacency. I've explained that to her as well."

Red nodded and released a quick breath. "She knows all this, Vincent. I just thought you should be told it still bothers her. Natalie wants to protect you so completely that, at times, she doesn't see that her desire defeats all reason. She will go on with her idea because she wants you to be free as much as you do. She goes on because she cares for you, deeply, as I know you care for her."

Vincent gathered his control, frayed at the edges as it was, and spoke after a long pause. "Red, what can I do? She shouldn't be tortured with accusations comparing her with a madman. What can I say that will put it out of her mind once and for all?"

Red shook his head. "I don't know. I've already told her that she shouldn't ever doubt what her heart tells her is her purpose, but I don't believe that is the same as believing she's following in the footsteps of someone like Hojo. That may be a battle she must fight alone, within herself."

"I will not let her fight alone."

Red smiled. "No. I suppose you wouldn't. Perhaps that is what she needs. Just you."

"I don't know how that could be enough for anyone, but she seems content."

"It's because she loves you. You may not understand why, but love is never understood by those who experience it."

Vincent looked over toward the Mansion. "So I've noticed."

Red examined his face before nudging at his leg. "Go. I've kept you long enough, Vincent. I'm sorry."

Vincent released a slow breath as he turned for the Mansion without a word. Red's confession of Natalie's fear bothered him. _Am I truly helpless? Is there nothing I can do to assure her?_ He knew that he'd already tried to set her mind at rest regarding the experiment, but was there something else he could do? _Is it truly up to her whether or not she accepts what I've told her?_ Vincent clenched his jaw. He'd never cared for feeling helpless.

That hadn't changed.

He pushed through the gate and made his way inside the Mansion. His mind remained strangely silent as he navigated the rooms that would lead him to the not-so-secret stairs to the basement laboratory. The silence seemed to leer at him. Ridiculing his attempt at humanity. Sneering at his endeavors to be tender and understanding. 'Why do you not hide again? If things are so difficult, run away. As you did before,' the silence seemed to say. _But what would that prove? Nothing._ Things would be the same. Dead. Lifeless. Empty. Alone. After having Natalie as an active part of his dreams and his reality, there was no way he would relinquish it. He wanted it all.

Vincent paused outside the laboratory door. It was ajar, and he could hear Natalie's voice as she walked herself through a procedure. Guiding herself through it with occasional words of praise and encouragement. Then she moved to a different project and was heard telling herself different possibilities as well as the reasons why one would be more plausible than the other. Listening to her made his expression soften as he reached out to push the door open. She was intently examining a slide under a microscope while her free hand held a book.

"See?" Natalie told herself with a hushed voice. "There isn't much difference from this one and the original DNA, yet this is after Hojo determined the experiment to be a success. Let's see... what was the date on this sample?"

She moved her gaze from the microscope to the notes carefully arranged on the desk and began searching for the information she needed, not noticing Vincent as he stepped further into the room. A slight breeze carried the fragrance of her toward him and he halted, closing his eyes and taking in a deep breath. His pulse quickened and he slowly opened his eyes. She'd found the paper she'd been searching for and nibbled on the end of her fingernail as she read over it. He swallowed hard and closed his eyes again, snatching at his dissipating restraint.

"That can't be right. Hm. Where was that other paper... Ah-hah!"

She leaned far over the desk, reaching for the other side just as Vincent opened his eyes. His gaze promptly focused on her shapely behind. Vincent shook his head in an attempt to clear it. Then he wiped a hand down his face and cleared his throat.

Natalie gave a start, straightening sharply. She turned toward him, and then she smiled and leaned back against the desk, closing the book to hug it against her chest. "Good morning, Vincent." Her tone caressed his soul. "Did you sleep well?"

"Yes." His tone was surprisingly even, and she didn't seem to notice his struggle to keep his distance. "You?"

She lowered her eyes with a one-shouldered shrug, kicking at the carpet with the toe of her sneaker. "I dreamt of you. We were having a picnic in the Temple of the Ancients, and then we walked around the Sleeping Forest. It was nice."

He'd dreamt of her as well. Her laughter. Her smiles. The way her touch would linger on his golden claw and human arm alike... Vincent's throat tightened, and he balled a fist behind his back. "I'm glad. You needed your rest."

Natalie took in a deep breath and released it slowly, catching his gaze after she set the book aside. "You ready?"

"Yes. You?" Her lips were caressed with a smile, and Vincent felt the heat rise to his ears.

"I've been ready for years, Vincent."

"As have I."

Natalie turned away. Vincent relaxed his stance, taking in a deep and silent breath as he hurriedly captured the remains of his self-control.

"All right then. I guess we should start." She pulled out a chair and turned to give him another smile. "Could you sit here please? I'm going to take a blood sample."

He clenched his jaw and stepped closer. She was wearing a new fragrance. Something reminiscent of the flowers Aeris had grown in the slums. "All right."

Once he'd sat in the chair, her hip continued to brush his shoulder as she reached for the syringe, alcohol, and other miscellaneous paraphernalia needed. Vincent was hard-pressed to keep his eyes from rolling back in his head as he gripped the arms of the chair.

"Okay. Now, I don't think this will hurt too much." Natalie set aside the syringe and leaned forward to roll up the sleeve of his black shirt - he'd left his red cape in his room at Cloud's.

Vincent wisely decided to hold his breath. The warmth of her breath on his arm was doing enough to cause distraction.

"There will be a little pinch..."

All he could feel was the tender kiss of her fingers on his skin. He clenched his jaw harder.

"All right. All done." She rolled down his sleeve and fastened the button at the cuff. "You okay?"

Vincent caught her gaze. They registered concern. "Yes." His voice was calmness itself.

Natalie's fingers lingered on the top of his hand for the barest hint of a moment, and then she gestured toward a machine on the far side of the laboratory. "I'd like to take an X-ray."

Vincent stood and followed her, desperately trying to keep his eyes from her gentle sway as she walked. She stood to one side of the table and patted it with a reassuring smile. Vincent stared at it a moment before swallowing hard and turning to push himself up onto it.

"Now, lay back." Natalie placed a hand on his back and gently guided him to lean against the cold surface. She rubbed at his arm with another reassuring smile as she brought a machine over to the table. "I'm just going to X-ray your claw. It'll only take a moment. Lay still."

She set some dials on the machine and then stepped away. A few moments later, she was back and pushing the machine to the side. Her hand again went to his back to help him sit up. Their gazes locked, and she smiled. Vincent's eyes lingered on her lips a moment before he was able to look away, sliding off the table and walking toward the far side of the room under the pretense of examining the pages of research notes she'd been perusing when he'd come in.

Natalie came to stand beside him. Much as he knew she would.

"Notes. Mostly Hojo's and Gast's, but some of them are mine accumulated over the past several years."

Her breath smelled of honey and fruit. Vincent clutched a hand behind his back as he turned to face her. "What next?"

Her lips parted with a chuckle and she shook her head. Her curls - drawn up in a ponytail - bobbed around her ears and made his throat tighten.

"You're done. I'm going to do the boring stuff the next few days. Outline a strategy and rule out possibilities. That way we can get more done. The longer days won't be until next week or after."

A stray eyelash was on her cheek, and he reached out to touch it away before he could stop himself. They stared down at it a moment before she held his hand, closed her eyes, and blew it away. Then she looked up at him with a smile. Her eyes twinkled.

"What did you do?" This time, his voice wasn't so calm. It wavered, ever so slightly deeper than normal.

"I made a wish." She cleared her throat and lowered her eyes, dropping her hand from his. "It's a silly custom, but it's fun."

Natalie made a move to turn away, but he stopped her with a gentle grip on her arm. "Natalie."

She looked up, her eyes slightly wide. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing." His eyes raked her face for a long and silent moment before he spoke again. "Just wait. Let me see you."

Natalie flushed, but didn't turn away. Nor did she lower her gaze. "I'm not going anywhere, Vincent. I'll still be here tomorrow."

"I know." He reached up to stroke her cheek and jaw before caressing her lower lip with a single finger. "Just wait."

"Vincent..." Her eyes closed as she leaned in. "Vincent, I... I need to work."

"I know," he repeated.

Vincent moved closer. Her breath tickled his cheek and he closed his eyes as he lightly touched her face with his lips, breathing in the delicate fragrance of blossoms from her hair and skin. She voiced a feeble protest as he pulled her into his arms. His lips wandered to the sensitive area beneath her ear.

"I need to say thank you," he whispered. "Thank you for offering me a choice other than isolation."

Natalie's arms encircled him as she released a deep breath. "You're welcome," she whispered.

Her sweet breath feathered a cascade of flaming tongues down his spine-- "I need to go now, Natalie."

Natalie's arms tightened around him for the briefest moment before she nodded and loosened her grip. "All right."

Vincent steeled himself against her warmth and her honeysweet breath in his hair to push gently back. She hadn't opened her eyes and her lips were slightly parted. _To kiss her... To kiss her would--_

"Natalie," he said in a tight voice. "Please. Turn away." He forced himself to release his grip on her arms. She turned, staggering forward to rest her hands on the arms of the chair to steady her. Vincent watched her in silence for a long moment, stopping her when it looked as if she would face him. "No. Don't. Wait until I leave, Natalie. Please."

She nodded, and he saw a telltale drip of a tear color the seat of the chair. His insides twisted, but he kept himself from stepping forward.

"I'll come out for lunch, Vincent," she whispered. "Will you meet me by the gate?"

"Yes. I will."

He made a move to turn away, but something stopped him. "Natalie, please remember what I said in your room last night. To be with you--" He clenched his jaw.

"I... I know."

Vincent could hear the smile in her tone. Relief loosened the tension in his back. "I will see you for lunch then."

She nodded. Vincent turned away, leaving the door as he'd found it. Ajar. He paused there for a moment, and then he heard the creak of the chair as she sat. There was a deep exhalation of breath.

"He smells so good," Natalie whispered.

Vincent smiled and moved away from the door.

Lunch came and went, but Natalie didn't emerge from the Mansion.

Vincent waited by the gate until dusk had fully settled upon the town, then he gave the Mansion one last look before turning toward Cloud's house. He was inside sharpening one of the many swords in his collection.

Cloud looked up at Vincent's entrance. "Hey. How was lunch?" He looked at the time on the wall and smirked. "How was dinner and dessert, for that matter."

"She didn't come."

Cloud lowered the weapon with an incredulous expression. "She stood you up? Are you serious?"

Vincent stiffly sat at the kitchen table. "No. She didn't come. It wasn't intentional. She is a scientist. Her work distracted her."

"Did you go in to let her know you'd been waiting?"

"No."

"Why not?" Vincent sent Cloud a look, who smiled with a knowing expression. "I see. Just a little too close and personal down there, huh?" Vincent looked away. Cloud chuckled, carefully sliding the weapon back into its scabbard before setting it aside. "You know, she's got to eat. You should take something down there. If you're not so sure going down alone is a good idea, I'll go too."

"It isn't necessary. When she's hungry, she'll come out."

Cloud smirked. "Just be ready to wait. It may take a couple days. The tension may kill you."

Vincent had already suspected much the same. In fact, he'd nearly done himself in that morning.

"You curious about what's got her so distracted?"

"Yes. She took a blood sample and an X-ray this morning."

"Of your claw?"

Vincent nodded and lifted up the golden atrocity to view it. "I wonder what she's found beneath its cold loveliness."

"Why don't you go down there and ask her?" Cloud smirked. "I'm sure she'd be more than willing to show you."

Vincent stared at it a moment longer before lowering it to his side. He stood. "Perhaps tomorrow."

"You going to bed?"

"Yes."

"You know you probably won't sleep much."

Vincent's lips twisted in a smirk as he made his way to the back bedroom. He'd sleep. He'd sleep and dream as he always did. She'd be waiting there for him, as she always was.


	13. An Odd Discovery

**.: XIII -- An Odd Discovery :.**

Natalie hurriedly wrote the notes on the quickly filling desk blotter before looking for the other blood sample. She placed the slide under the microscope and zoomed in. "That is so odd. How can that be right? Did I date them wrong?" She sat back in the chair, gnawing on her lower lip as she twirled a curl around her finger. Then she nibbled on the end. "It's like looking at samples from three different people; Vincent's original sample, his present one, and the one taken directly after the experiment done by Hojo..."

Natalie couldn't understand it. The one she had just taken more closely resembled his original, but with definite traces of the Jenova cells forcefully inserted into his protein makeup, only not as pronounced. Natalie pulled her hair back into a bun, fastening it by wrapping the hair around a pencil and securing that pencil through her mass of curls. Then she went over to the lights that shone behind Vincent's X-ray. Thanks to Shinra technology, she'd been able to scan through the claw to see the human skeletal structure beneath. What she'd assumed was a Jenova graft, wasn't.

"It's his arm. But there must be a reason for the claw's presence, and by looking at these wavering Jenova traces in his blood, I'm beginning to think... Could it be that simple? Could it?"

Natalie turned away, lightly scratching at her scalp as she frowned. "I have to take the outer covering off. I have to know what's under there before I can think anything."

She nodded brusquely and hurried from the lab, rushing down the hallway to climb the spiral stairs and hurry out of the Mansion to Cloud's house. She didn't notice the stars twinkling in the sky, the still silence of the town as the people slept, nor the fact it was close to two o'clock in the morning.

She knocked. The door was immediately opened by Vincent. Natalie didn't notice the concern in his eyes or the lack of sleep and haggardness that marked his face. All she focused on were reasons and possibilities. "Vincent, I need you to come to the lab."

Vincent shut the door behind him. "Is something wrong?"

Natalie shook her head, absently taking his hand and pulling him toward the Mansion. "No. Nothing's wrong. I just need to see about taking off the outer covering of your claw."

"Take off the outer covering?"

Natalie gave a nod, offering nothing more and oblivious to his puzzled scrutiny of her face.

When they reached the basement laboratory, she sat him in the chair and went in search of the tools seen. "Here they are." She went back to his side, set out the ones she'd need, and then went to work. "This shouldn't hurt."

It didn't. At least he didn't complain. The claw, much to Natalie's surprise, was very easy to dismantle. All she had to do was press a switch here, release a catch there, slide off a restraining chain from a screw, and the claw slipped free-- to a certain extent. It seemed to catch on something and, when she attempted to pull it the remaining way, Vincent winced.

"Sorry," she said absently, and immediately went to work analyzing the problem. "There seems to be something connected in there. Hold on a second." Natalie touched her upper lip with the tip of her tongue as she looked up toward the ceiling, closing her eyes to aid in her concentration as she gingerly felt up his arm. Her eyes flew open. "Oh my goodness!" She knelt and tried to see what she'd found with her fingers, then sat back on her heels as a hand went to her forehead. "Of course! Why didn't I think of that before?"

Natalie shook her head with a slight laugh as she rushed to her feet, hurrying to the other side of the laboratory while muttering under her breath about "chemical reactions" and the "possibility of rejection" being "too great to risk anything else". Vincent could only watch her - when she was very occasionally in his view - desperately attempting to reason out why his arm had been hidden by a claw and not a grotesque portion of Jenova grafted to his body, as he'd supposed for years.

Finally, Natalie came to kneel in front of him again. Her hands disappeared under his shirt to his underarm to feel for the things she'd found before. "Okay," she told him matter-of-fact as she faced him with eyes closed, "you have some tubes inserted into different arteries in your arms that are, apparently, circulating the Jenova cells into your system on a semi-continuous basis."

Her tongue flicked out to touch her lips in concentration for a moment, and then she opened her eyes with a smile, withdrew her hands, and rested them on the thighs of her legs as she sat back on her heels. Her eyes sparkled with enthusiasm. "Do you know what this means? It means your body rejects Jenova cells when left to its own devices! The chemical matrix of your body and that of Jenova aren't compatible. So Hojo had to rig up this device, which works like a dialysis system, in order to continually introduce the Jenova cells that have kept you this way."

Vincent's eyes changed, and Natalie continued to smile up at him. "What made you think of this?" he asked.

"I noticed that your blood chemistry was different in ways that it shouldn't have been. It's as if the claw is set to introduce the Jenova cells only at certain times."

"If you remove the claw and the tubes that have been inserted... I should revert to my original form?"

Natalie laughed as she leaned forward to rest her elbows on his knees, resting her chin on one hand as she gazed up at him. "No, no. You're already in your original form. You'll just lose the characteristics Jenova gave: the red eyes, longevity of life, flight, and who knows what else."

Vincent moved his focus from her face to the claw dangling precariously within his grasp. Tubing snaked from its hollow shell to disappear up his arm. Every once and a while there was a slight twinge in his upper arm. Mostly it came when he attempted to move, which pulled at the claw and, consequently, at the tubes inserted into the arteries.

"I... I..." Vincent attempted.

Natalie's expression softened as she stood, carefully reassembling the claw over his arm. He placed a hand on hers to stop her, and she looked over at him. "It's all right, Vincent. I'm only going to put it on temporarily. I don't want to hurt you. Besides, I need to do a little bit more research into how it's inserted into your arm before I go poking around in there."

Vincent removed his hand and watched her own as they worked, gently reconstructing the cool, golden claw. "Could it be? Could my answer be so simple?"

Natalie's smile remained as her hands tenderly held the claw in place. "Come on. I need you to move over there. I'll hold it to make sure it doesn't pull."

Vincent stood, allowing himself to be led to the table where the X-ray machine had been. Said machine had been converted into an examination bed, offering more comfort than the hard surface of the X-ray table from earlier. He laid back and rest his arm on a side table. Natalie again dissembled the claw and arranged it as painlessly as possible around his arm.

"Natalie," Vincent said in a quiet tone, "could the cure be as simple as this?"

Natalie set the pieces of the claw aside to pull a chair up to the table. She took his previously glove-covered hand and gave it a gentle squeeze. "We're the ones who usually believe science must be complicated. Oftentimes it isn't. Just like this. The most difficult thing will be the removal procedure. I'm not a surgeon, and it's been a long time since I took anatomy in school. But." Natalie squeezed his hand again. "I don't want to take them out just yet. I'm going to clamp them off first. I don't want to take them out only to find that you go into some type of horrid withdrawal. It would be just my luck that Hojo used an addictive chemical base." Natalie's smile faded to hesitation. "All right?"

"You are the professor, Natalie. This is your field of expertise."

She smiled. "You just want the easy way out."

Vincent reluctantly smiled. "I would never recognize the easy way."

"No. I guess you wouldn't." Natalie sighed, leaning forward to caress his cheek with her fingers. "If something bad happens, to spite Hojo I'll design a way to use this thing to reintroduce your original DNA, or plasma, or blood, or whatever needs to be done. It serves him right."

"And once Jenova is removed from my system?"

Natalie gave a slight shrug as she smiled. "Knowing you, rejection won't take too long. So I would recommend bedrest for at least a month." She gave his hand another gentle squeeze. "Don't worry, though. I'll take care of you."

Vincent continued to stare at the hand and arm freed from the chilled metal of the claw. Natalie's eyes brimmed with tears as she watched him. Her other hand reached out to brush some hair from his cheek. His hand tightened on hers as his gaze went to her face.

"Are you going to be all right?" Natalie asked softly. "This is a lot of information to be sprung on you, I know."

Vincent's eyes once again focused on his hand as it held hers. "Could it be so simple?"

"Sure. Why not?" Natalie rested her elbow on the bed and propped her chin on her hand, watching him with a slight smile. "You've never had a simple life, have you?"

He laid his head back and closed his eyes. His hand tightened on hers again. "No."

"I'd love to break your record, Vincent," she whispered. Her thumb continued to caress his hand. "You deserve a break. Don't you think?"

Vincent's lips twitched upward. "Perhaps." Her presence eased the tension. Vincent's eyes drifted open long enough to catch her gaze. "I was concerned for you. You missed lunch."

Her expression showed regret. "I'm sorry, Vincent. You're not mad, are you?"

"No. I knew that you were working." His eyes closed again. "I tried to meet you in my dreams instead."

"Couldn't sleep?"

He released a long breath. "No. Your voice wasn't there."

Natalie's eyes darkened. She stood to carefully ease herself up beside him, turning in to his side and draping her arm across him as she laid her cheek on his chest. His heartbeat was rhythmic and strong. "I'm here now, Vincent. Go to sleep."

"Aren't I already? Are you sure this isn't a dream?"

Her eyelids began to droop, and she fought back a yawn. "Positive. I'm too sleepy." She surrendered to the yawn and let her eyes close. "I think I'll take a nap, too. You're warm. I'll cure you in the morning." She snuggled in closer. "I love you, Vincent."

Vincent pressed his lips against her hair, and Natalie released a long breath as reality faded to dreams. He stared down at her for a moment once sleep had beckoned her away. Then he moved his gaze to the claw that had come to represent his separation from gentleness. The urge to grasp it and tear it from his arm was so strong--

He turned his face away and clenched his fist. He had waited this long. A few more weeks or days would be a mere blink, especially when Natalie would be so close. _What else matters?_...

"The realization of my freedom," he muttered harshly. "Don't forget that."

But that had already faded to a distant second. He knew that if the cure would cause his death he'd be content to remain as he was. After all, how could he not be content when Natalie loved him for who and what he was: darkness and light.

Vincent took in a deep breath of the scent of her. With each breath his humanness forced its way through the mired sludge that had once choked his compassion to nonexistence. Now... Every laugh. Every smile. Every intentional touch of her hand on his revived what he had once thought lost forever.

A voice pushed through to whisper 'I am becoming less human...'

Yes. He had thought that when taking on his final form: Chaos. Now he remembered it again. As he had told himself he would. Vincent changed his focus to Natalie's peaceful face. _You have lost, Hojo. Your final defeat lies within her control. Her tender touch will render your twisted accomplishment void, and you will be forgotten. You will be forgotten and not I._ That admission caused a wave of warmth and freedom.

A smile danced on his lips and twinkled in his eyes. He drew her closer with his golden claw and pressed his lips against her hair. Then he surrendered to the beckoning darkness of a sleep with no fear.

"Tifa, you seen Vincent or Natalie?"

Tifa looked up from where she had curled up on the couch reading a book. She sent Cloud a smile. "Hey, you. How was the walk with Cid to the power plant?"

Cloud came over to sit beside her, pulling her legs up onto his lap. "Good, considering. Everything's looking great. It's working fine. No hiccups. No bugs. Nothing wrong that we can see. He scoped out a couple more places where he can build them, and he figures we can power at least one more town just from here. We only need to figure the best way to get the power from point A to point B. I'm voting for underground cable."

"That's great. Now, what's this about Vincent and Natalie?"

"When I woke up this morning he was gone. And Yuffie said Natalie never went to bed last night."

"Do you think they're in the Mansion? You know yesterday was the day."

"I was on my way over when I figured I'd stop and say 'hi'." Cloud placed a kiss on her lips and smiled at her. "Hi."

Tifa wrapped her arms around his neck. "Hi, yourself."

Cloud stood, Tifa still in his arms. "Wanna come with?"

"To the Mansion?" She shrugged, adjusting her hold around his neck. "Sure. Why not? It's not like I have anywhere else to go."

Cloud made his way to the door, waited while she opened it for him, and then stepped through to head toward the Mansion. "I hope they aren't in a situation like before."

"Yeah. Catching them twice would be a little too embarrassing." Tifa was quiet for a moment, and then rested her head against him. "It was sweet, though. Vincent kissing someone geeky like Natalie. A Turk with a professional bookworm."

"Go figure."

They reached the entrance of the Mansion. "So, what exactly did you want with Vincent and Natalie?"

Cloud smirked. "I was wanting to know how the computer was running."

"Liar. You wanted to check up on those two. You aren't their chaperone, you know."

"I know."

"So what's the real reason?"

Cloud's eyes twinkled. "I was curious. I wanted to see what she was planning on doing. Look over her shoulder, I guess. Maybe give her a hand."

"Don't you think she'd ask if she needed help?"

Cloud shook his head with a chuckle. "Are you kidding? She wouldn't think of that. She's used to working by herself. Just like me."

"Oh. You recognized the 'loner' attitude, eh?"

Cloud set her on her feet inside the Mansion. "Something like that."

"Vincent sure makes it go away, huh?"

"You noticed?"

Tifa smirked, nudging him toward the room with the spiral staircase. "Smart aleck."

"Hey. No name calling. I'll have to retaliate."

Tifa chuckled. "Oh? Now that I would like to see."

Cloud grabbed her waist and nibbled on her ear. "Hey, just say the word."

She pulled herself free and turned to face him, still walking backwards. "Behave yourself, Mr. Strife, or there will be no dinner for you."

Cloud smiled before putting on a dutifully abashed expression. "Yes, ma'am."

Tifa laughed. She reached out to grab his hand. "Oh come on, silly. Let's go down and see if they're here."

The two didn't hear voices or any telltale sign of activity as they made their way down the spiral staircase and through the hall to the basement laboratory beyond. Once they reached the door to the lab, they were reasonably certain there wouldn't be any surprises behind the door. Not to mention the fact that it was already slightly ajar. So, Cloud and Tifa both gave a shrug and pushed it open.

Inside, Vincent and Natalie were sound asleep on a makeshift examination bed positioned on the far side of the lab.

Tifa tightened her grip on Cloud's hand as she rested her head on his arm. "Is that the sweetest thing you've seen in ages, or what?"

"Damned if I thought it would happen." There was an obvious smile in his voice. "It couldn't have happened to nicer people, though."

"It's like they've been together forever."

Cloud nodded. Then he gestured over to the desk with its varying assortment of opened books, scribbled notes, and microscope slides. "Take a look. She's been busy."

"How much of that is new and how much is from her whole life researching him?"

"Probably six of one and half a dozen of the other."

Tifa wrapped her arms around Cloud's midsection. "You think she'll cure him?"

"Hell ya. That woman is a lot like you. She can do anything once she sets her mind to it."

"Thanks."

He pressed his lips against her hair. "No problem. Now, come on. I feel like we're eavesdropping. Let's go have some dinner. They'll wake up soon enough to let us know how things are going."

Tifa nodded. She sent the sleeping couple one last smile before turning and following Cloud from the room. She closed the door quietly behind her.


	14. Passions

**.: XIV -- Passions :.**

Natalie yawned and stretched, feeling much the cat that had swallowed the canary. Time after time she'd woken to the warmth of his arm around her. To the steady beat of his heart in her ear. To the softness of his breath against her hair. Had anything been so wonderful? _Not likely._

Natalie had to admit that she'd been oh-so-tempted to relieve him of his clothes - at least his shirt - but the larger part of her modesty and conscience had kept her desires at bay. Barely. _It'll come when it comes, Nat. Sheesh!_ Never before had being pure and innocent been so blasted irritating. She chuckled despite herself and increased the tightness of her arms around Vincent.

"Good morning," he greeted.

Natalie looked over at the clock on the far wall. "It certainly is." The temptation to snuggle closer was tremendous, but she resisted. Instead, she sat up and put a hand up to salvage her ponytail of tousled curls as she changed her gaze to Vincent. "So, did you want anything for breakfast?"

Vincent's eyes glowed for a moment, and then a guard lowered. "No."

Natalie smiled and carefully turned to slide off the bed. She stretched and twisted the kinks out of her body before facing him. He watched her with an odd expression. Natalie blushed. "I suppose I can understand that. You want me to get busy on the whole cure thing."

Vincent's lips were tickled with a brief smile. "Yes."

Natalie sighed and stepped forward, leaning her hands against the bed as she held his gaze. "Unfortunately, you'll need to be patient a little longer, Mr. Valentine. I need to find schematics of the machine within your claw first."

Vincent reached forward suddenly and caressed her cheek.

Natalie blinked at the expression on his face. _Adoration?_

"Natalie, last night while you slept a realization was made. Many, in fact."

"About what?"

"About who I am. About who I want to be. About what I want." Vincent smiled and the genuine expression twinkled in his amber eyes. Natalie's throat tightened as he went on. "I want you to try, but I won't force you to continue if it means my death. The life I'll have with you is more than enough."

Natalie's eyes brightened. "Really?" She took his hand in both of hers. "Really?"

"Yes."

Her smile flashed in her eyes so bright that it infected Vincent's mouth with a wider smile. Natalie threw her arms around him with a choked "Oh, Vincent!" Then she buried her face into the lengths of his black hair.

Vincent wrapped his arms tightly around her.

"That's the best thing you could have said, Vincent," she said in a teary voice.

Vincent took in a slow and deep breath of the scent of her hair. Then he was gently pushing her back. Natalie's hold around him resisted. "Natalie..." His voice was tight.

Natalie sighed and loosened her hold. When she looked down at him, she could see that he wanted to be with her as much as she with him. "Vincent, why not?"

"Because of how you feel."

She pulled him into another embrace, tightening her arms around him till it was a struggle to breathe. "You make it sound like it's wrong."

Vincent stared up at the ceiling of the Mansion for a long time. His arms rigid at his sides. His hands balled into fists. "Natalie, that's not what I mean for you to think."

"Then why?" Her voice was tight with tears. "Why not?"

"I won't erase your innocence unless there's no possibility of my cure. Only then... Natalie, please." He took a firm hold of her arms and pushed her back after using a great portion of his strength. He gazed into her tear-filled eyes. "Please understand."

Natalie struggled against his grip, and then her eyes sparkled with temper. "Dammit, I don't care about monster or human or whatever you think might make a bit of difference. I love you, Vincent, and I want to be with you. All of me! Do you really believe I'm going to be able to think straight when all I imagine--"

"Don't," Vincent said harshly. His eyes flashed with anger and desperation as he pushed away, turning to slide off the opposite side of the bed. Then, and only then, did he face her. "I understand, Natalie, and have grappled with that myself. This is why I must go."

Natalie paled. "What are you talking about? Go? Go where?"

"Cid and Cloud plan to build another generator in Rocket Town."

"So?"

"I want to help."

Natalie shook her head violently. "No. I need you here, Vincent. I want you here!"

"I know," he said, and his eyes clearly showed the pain at the telling. "I want to be here, too, but you must study and focus. You can't do that when I am here."

"Why not?" Natalie asked passionately.

Vincent balled his hands into fists. "Your passion for me is stealing your focus. If I leave for a day or two, you will be better able to think and reason." She shook her head. "Natalie, it is becoming harder to resist you," he pressed. "I must go."

Natalie stepped forward. "Just make love to me, Vincent," she pleaded passionately. "It's what we both want!"

Vincent turned away sharply. "Natalie, I cannot change my mind! Don't torture me!"

There was an age of silence, and then she turned and stormed from the lab. Vincent stared at the wall ahead of him for what seemed an eternity in and of itself before taking in a long breath and changing his focus to the door. Since the evening she'd tried to ask him to stay in her room, the tension between them had risen, each day worse than the last. The channeling of their feelings into a night of shared passion and intimacy had loomed closer this morning than it ever had.

His only hope for survival was to leave.

Vincent cleared his throat and released another long breath. Then he made his way through the halls and staircases and rooms and out into the late morning sunshine. Cloud and Natalie were having an argument. Dread welled up in Vincent's soul as he made his way forward. But before Vincent could rescue Cloud from a bad situation, Natalie slapped him hard and stalked away. Cloud held his cheek in silent amazement as Vincent came to stand beside him.

"What the hell got in to her?" Cloud changed his gaze of confusion and bewilderment to Vincent. "She wanted me to tell you that I didn't need your help, and I told her that we needed whatever help we could get. I didn't know you were planning on coming with us. I thought... Oh I don't know what I thought. Next thing I know she's yelling at me that I'm ruining her life and that I should just leave you alone because I already had Tifa." Cloud stretched out his hands in a pleading gesture. "Vincent, what the hell is going on?"

"I told her that I was going to Rocket Town to help you and Cid with the generator."

"But what about your cure?"

"Natalie needs the time to study anatomy and procedures of surgery."

Cloud opened his mouth to say something, but closed it with a shake of his head and a mumbled, "I don't understand anything anymore," before he strode toward Tifa's house to say good-bye.

Vincent stared after him with what was close to an understanding expression. He had barely turned to make his way to the inn when Cid slammed the door behind him and stalked toward Vincent with an expression as black as death. Vincent groaned inwardly, sure that he was about to witness another casualty to Natalie's temper.

"Vincent, I need to have a word with you." Cid's voice was calmness itself.

Vincent nearly took a step backward. "What is it?"

"Your scientist friend nearly took my head off with a chair." Cid removed his cap to point out a fresh cut oozing blood. He replaced his cap and took a very long drag on his cigarette. He blew it out just as slowly. "Do you mind telling me why she's acting pissier than a cat in heat?"

"It'll pass."

"Oh I know it'll pass," Cid said. His voice still dangerously calm. "But it better pass before I lose my patience, or she's liable to find herself over my knee with a sore behind." He stalked away.

Vincent looked up to the second story window of the inn just as there was a crash and a long growl that ended with a high-pitched meow, similar in pitch to Red when his tail was stepped upon.

"Natalie..." Vincent released a long breath before making his way toward the inn. Red limped down the stairs, nursing his left front leg. "What happened?"

Red cleared his throat - he seemed embarrassed - and then moved past Vincent to the exit. "My fault. I asked the wrong question at the wrong time." Red noticed that Vincent was moving toward the stairs. "Vincent, I don't believe it would be wise to disturb her at the moment."

"It's my fault she's upset."

"Perhaps so, but it would still be the best to let her cool off."

Vincent hesitated, looking toward the crest of the stairs with an expression deep in uncertainty. Finally, he turned and followed Red out of the inn, cringing when another crash was heard upstairs. "Red..."

"It will pass, Vincent. Believe it or not, it will pass."

Vincent sighed, moving toward the well where Cid and Cloud waited to leave. Cloud had a pronounced hand mark on his cheek, and Cid sported a fresh bandage under his cap. Vincent sent a look over his shoulder toward the upper window just as the curtain closed. He clenched his jaw and turned back to the others. He didn't want to leave her like this, but he knew he had to. If he went up there now, he would surrender yet again.

"It won't take too long to get it built, because I have all the parts in my workshop," Cid was saying. "Once we get it running, we can run the cable to here and see about synchronizing the generators to produce enough power for one or two other towns."

"Sounds good," Cloud said with a nod.

Vincent said nothing.

"I don't know how accessible the geothermal power is in Rocket Town. All I know is that the damn stuff is there."

"We'll find it," Cloud said firmly.

Vincent still said nothing. He could feel her gaze. _This isn't right._ Leaving didn't feel as it should have if it was the best thing to do. If anything, the tension would rise. Their relationship would become strained. They would begin to walk away from each other. Always running. Always hiding from the desires they both shared. They had to work this out. They had to face their passions, talk about them, and then make a decision together.

"I can't go."

Cloud, Cid, Tifa, and Red looked over at Vincent in surprise. "What?" Cid asked first. "What the hell do you mean?"

Vincent looked to Cloud, who nodded with an understanding smirk, and then Vincent turned his focus on Cid. "I have unfinished business."

"I bet you do." Cid intercepted a dirty look from the other three, and then strode out of town without another word.

"Good luck," Cloud said. "You'll need it, I think." He gave Tifa one last embrace before following Cid.

Red looked over at Vincent for a long moment before shaking his head. "Farewell. I'm off to Cosmo Canyon to see about a source of power there."

"Bye, Red," Tifa said. She turned to Vincent. "Is there anything I can do?"

Vincent stared up at the second story window. "I don't know."

"This is the tough part in a relationship, Vincent. Don't give up. Don't try and hide from your feelings, either. It won't help. As you can see." Vincent turned and looked at Tifa. She smiled. "I'm not saying you should give in, Vincent. Don't worry about that. I understand where you're coming from, as much as someone could who isn't you, and I really think it's wonderful. She does too, I bet. It's just a little too hard right now. She probably feels like she's about ready to blow up and doesn't know how to vent." Tifa laughed. "Poor Cloud."

"How do I help her?"

"Talking about it in a public place always helps. That way you don't have to worry about wanting to take a detour to the bed." Tifa flushed slightly. "I've nearly done that a couple times. Believe me. It's easy to do. But," Tifa sighed deeply, "unfortunately, you guys have to deal with this before you can move on. I know it feels like you've already dealt with this and you're going around in circles. Or you don't know why you just don't give her what she wants. That's the decision you both have to make. Once it's made, it's made. You can't go back."

"I know."

"Yeah, I know you do." She rested a hand on his shoulder and gave it a squeeze. "Good luck, Vincent." She turned away but stopped. She faced him again. "Oh. And listen to what she's saying. Okay?"

Vincent looked up at the second story window, took in a deep breath, and then stepped toward the entrance.

Natalie saw him head toward the inn and turned for the exit of her room, stalking out and striding down the hallway to the stairs. Vincent had just entered when she reached the middle of the stairway. He paused, but she didn't. She strode past and left him standing there. She heard him follow after a moment's hesitation.

"I don't want to deal with this right now, Vincent," she said in an angry tone. "I'm mad at you. Very mad."

"I know." He easily matched her stride. "I know," he said again. "We need to talk."

"All we do is talk," she snapped with a harsh glance over at him. He met it easily. Natalie looked away. "I'm tired of talking. I'm tired of being sensitive. I'm tired of controlling myself. I'm tired of being alone at night."

"I know. So am I."

She halted so suddenly that Vincent took a step past her before turning. "Then what's the problem?"

"That's what we need to find out." Vincent took in a slow breath. "I've explained it to you, Natalie, and you said you understood. Now you act as if you've forgotten what I told you."

Natalie crossed her arms. "I haven't. I just don't care anymore."

"Then I guess we have nothing more to talk about."

Natalie regarded him suspiciously. Her anger dwindled at a sudden fear. "What do you mean?"

"If you no longer care what I feel, then you are no longer the woman I grew fond of in these short days. Professor Natalie Long was determined, yes, but she was sensitive to the feelings of others."

His words felt like a dagger in her heart. "That's not fair. I'm human."

"Are you saying I'm not?"

Natalie paled. "No!"

"Then why would you think that I couldn't also change my mind about my decision?"

"Then why won't you?"

"I've explained that." Vincent stretched his arms out toward her. "Natalie, why must I continue to tell you what I know you understand? It's hard enough being by your side when your breath smells of honey and your hair of flowers without you pushing each and every button that weakens my restraint on my desire." He sighed and lowered his arms. "This is a hard time for you, Natalie, and your innocence makes it harder. As does your love for me."

Natalie lowered her eyes.

"You want instant gratification, but you don't realize that our long-term relationship will be sacrificed to that moment." Vincent stepped forward and lifted her chin to raise her eyes to his. "Natalie, you're special to me. So should our first lovemaking be special. Don't you believe this as well?" A tear trailed down her cheek as he continued. "When you're frustrated with the lack of intimacy between us, vent at me. Don't let it build within you until it endangers us both. Passions are hard to curb when allowed to fester."

Natalie pulled his hand from her chin. "I'm just so tired of being the responsible professor, Vincent. I want to be reckless and passionate. I want to know what I want and go after it. I don't want to be told to 'run along' and then do it."

"You are passionate," Vincent told her. "You are reckless. What else is responsible for your tenacity in searching me out and then falling in love with what you found? Don't change any aspect of who you are, Natalie. That's what I love."

Natalie blinked. "Wh-What did you say?"

"I said that I love you as you are. I love your innocence, your passion, and your tendency toward absentmindedness when engrossed in a project. I love your eyes and the brightness of intensity that is always there." He stepped closer, caressing her cheeks with his thumbs. "I love your blushes. I love your temper. I love the way you swear when you're angry or distressed. I love you, Natalie, and that is why I want to wait. Please, please understand."

She gazed up at him with wide eyes. "Please. Say it again."

"I love you."

"Again."

Vincent smiled and wrapped her up in his arms, taking in a deep breath of her hair. "I love you."

Natalie tightened her hold on him. "I'm sorry I lost my temper. I got so frustrated… Of course, you know all that. You just deal with it better than I do."

"Only because I've had too many years of self-restraint." His grip tightened around her. "I could stay like this until the seasons changed, Natalie. Like this, in your arms, feeling your body so close against mine... It's hard for me to keep from taking you where we both want to go, but then I remind myself. I remind myself that you deserve more. As do I. I will not settle for second best."

"I would love you no matter what, Vincent, and sometimes I think you forget that."

"I don't. That's what reminds me of my decision to wait."

Natalie buried her face in his shirt and took in a deep breath. "This is what I needed, Vincent. Just this. A nice tight hug." Natalie smiled when Vincent pressed his cheek against the top of her head. "Can we just stay like this for a while?" She sighed. "Just like this."

"Yes."


	15. The Waiting

**.: XV -- The Waiting :.**

Natalie stretched and then pushed the textbook aside. Vincent looked up from the book he read - a history of the Cetra that Natalie had written - to send her a quizzical glance. She smiled. "It's really interesting, the human body. It's amazing how it all works."

"Are you finished?"

"Yeah. I did a quiz and got 100." She rested her arms on the table, stretching out to take his hand in hers. "It isn't the same as medical school, but it's all I can do."

"It will be enough."

"I hope so." She gave his hand another squeeze before releasing it to stand. The Item Shop had begun to fill with the later risers. "Let's go. I should start while it's fresh."

Vincent stood to follow, falling into step beside her as they made their way to the Mansion. It had been the best three day cram-session she had ever had. When she hadn't been studying, Vincent and she had taken long walks around Mt. Nibel. Mostly the walks had been silent times of enjoying the other's company. There had been occasions when one of the two had begun to talk about how a specific section of scenery had reminded them of a memory they had, and then each had taken turns offering a similar memory.

One time they had even found themselves standing outside the door to the room that held his crypt...

_"Did I ever rest there?"_

_Natalie stared at the door with a growing coldness of anger and hatred. "Yes, you did. For a very long time."_

_And the memories of the long months and years of searching propelled her through the door. Vincent followed, and they moved to stand in the center of the room, staring at the black coffin._

_"There. Right there is where I first saw you," she told him softly. "That's where I first came to the realization I would do this no matter what. No matter how long it took to get you to come out, I would cure you."_

_Natalie stepped close to the box. "I hated this thing. Hated everything it stood for. Hated how it meant you'd been thrown away, as if you didn't mean anything to anybody. Hated how it meant you were seen as dead in the eyes of all who knew you. It kept you away from me, and away from the life I wanted to give you." Natalie's voice choked on the sudden tears. She lowered her chin, closing her eyes against the onslaught._

_"Natalie..." Vincent rested a hand on her shoulder. "Natalie, don't."_

_Natalie took in a ragged breath before turning away from the coffin. "I know. I... I shouldn't look back because... it doesn't prove anything. It's just..." Vincent stepped forward to embrace her. Natalie gave a choked sob. "I hurt, Vincent. I hurt for you every time I think about what you've seen and done and had done to you. It's like my entire insides twist inside out and then do it all over again..."_

_Vincent smoothed her curls._

_Natalie pushed away suddenly, and her eyes flashed with anger as she turned on the coffin. "You lost! Do you hear? You can't have him anymore! He's mine!"_

_She strode forward and kicked the coffin several times, leaving dents and cracks in its side with her heavy-soled hiking boots. Vincent tried to pull her away but she shook loose, reaching inside to grab fistfuls of velvety softness. She pulled with all her strength and the rich purple material ripped with an awful sound. Natalie stared down at the darkness in her shaking hands. Then she tossed it to the ground and stared at it with wide eyes._

_Vincent took hold of her arm and gently pulled her away. "Natalie."_

_Natalie raised her head. "I'm s-sorry." She brushed some curls from her face and swallowed hard as she turned away from the coffin. "I... I don't..." She shook her head. "I'm sorry."_

_Vincent guided her from the room, the books forgotten on the floor of the crypt. He led her to the opposite wall, taking her hands in his as he watched her face. Her eyes were closed, and her face was slightly pale. "Natalie, are you all right?"_

_Natalie shook her head. "I don't know what happened, Vincent." Natalie opened her eyes. "I... I was just so angry. I couldn't think of anything but... It s-scared me."_

_"Have you ever felt this way before?"_

_Natalie shook her head again. "No. Never."_

_Vincent continued to watch her face as she stared down at their clasped hands. "Perhaps you should rest, Natalie."_

_Natalie shook her head. "No, Vincent. No. Studying and researching will help. It always has."_

_"I've waited this long," Vincent pressed. "A little more won't matter one way or the other."_

_"No," Natalie said firmly, looking up to meet his gaze. "You've waited long enough. I'm not going to let this Mansion or this basement laboratory and the memories in it win. I am going to cure you!"_

_"Natalie--"_

_Natalie grabbed his upper arms to give him a shake. "No! I had a moment of weakness. That's all. I've had them before. So have you. I can deal with it. As long as there's a chance, I'm moving on. I'm going to study and learn and step toward the hope that I can cure you. Don't tell me to stop, Vincent, because I won't!"_

_Vincent wrapped his arms around her to draw her close. He pressed his lips against her neck._

_Natalie released a choked breath. "I won't."..._

The facing of the past, standing against it together, had allowed both her and Vincent to grow closer in a way she had never risked imagining.

Now, they made their way to the basement laboratory, pausing in the entrance to stare within as the culmination of all their hopes began to be realized. Natalie released a slow breath and stepped forward.

"I see you were here recently," Vincent observed.

"Yes." Natalie sheepishly smiled. "Twice, in fact."

"You had already decided today would be the day?"

"I was hoping, but I wasn't going to bet on it. It depended on how I did on the quiz."

"How many times have you done said quiz with such high results?"

Natalie flushed, double-checking the tools. "Oh, about a hundred or so. I lost count."

Vincent smiled. "I suspected as much."

"See? You were enjoying yourself as much as I was."

"I didn't deny it."

Natalie gestured him to the table. "Come on. Let's get you ready."

Vincent eased himself up onto the bed and lay back, resting his claw on the side table. She reached out to dissemble it but paused, casting a glance at the sleeve hiding the insertion points from view.

Natalie cleared her throat, tapping her forehead with a solitary finger. "Uh, Vincent, you'll need to take off your shirt."

Vincent sat up with another smile as he unbuttoned his shirt and slipped out of it. He handed it to her. "You've been wanting to do that yourself for quite a while."

Natalie flushed as she set the shirt aside. "Don't start," she warned, smiling.

Natalie cleared her throat as she deliberately kept her eyes from his chest. Instead, she wrestled her attention to the claw and it's insertion points. There was a metal 'guide' that kept the tubing from being jostled, thereby reducing the risk of being accidentally - or purposefully - removed. When she lightly touched the skin just behind the metal guide, she could tell they were a good 1 or 2 inches into his arm. They would need to be carefully removed via surgery. The tubing, however, could be nothing more than a type of I.V. and likely removed by retracting the 'needle' inserted. Whether the guides had a catch that needed to be released before they would easily retract was, again, a different story.

Natalie straightened, sent Vincent a reassuring smile, and then turned for the clamps that would cut off the Jenova from his body. She hesitated for a moment, sent him another smile, and then clamped the tubing. The tubing into his arm cleared of fluid. "Now we wait."

"How long?"

Natalie shrugged and sat on the bed, reaching out to brush some of his hair from his face. "I'm not sure. I thought that the Jenova was circulated semi-continuously, yet I've never seen the tubing empty. So it could take just a few minutes. If it does only re-circulate every few hours, that's how long your body will take to react."

"Any idea what reaction to expect?"

She shook her head. "No. Prepare yourself for the worst, I suppose."

Vincent took her hand and pulled her toward him, gently pressing her cheek against his chest. Natalie wrapped her arms around him as best she could and closed her eyes, relishing the feel of his smooth chest against her face and the feel of his hand stroking her hair.

"Natalie... Natalie, I'm reluctant to have you see the pain."

Natalie pressed her lips briefly against his chest. "I am too, but I'm not going anywhere. Please don't ask me to."

Vincent took in a deep breath, releasing it slowly as he caressed her back. "Then we will wait together."

With each minute and hour that passed they fought against the elation at the apparent ease of Vincent's cure. The desire to hope that such pain could be ended so quickly was intense, but they pushed it away as each new hour approached. They couldn't be certain. Not yet. So they waited.

They waited and saw the redness of Vincent's eyes decrease and vanish. Natalie saw he had dark, rich, chocolate-brown eyes. They waited and saw the almost undead pallor of his skin fade, revealing a naturally dark complexion easily tanned when in the sun for extended periods of time.

Natalie made constant notes on her ever-present spiral notepad. It had been nearly 10 hours. Occasionally there would be a high-pitched whine from the innards of the glove, but Natalie assumed it was the circulation system complaining at its lack of outlet for its Jenova cells. They ignored it with ease and pleasure.

At the 11th hour, Natalie decided they both needed to sleep.

She stood, picked up the cards from the makeshift table propped on top of his claw, and set them aside onto the table by the computer. Then she gave Vincent a kiss on the cheek. "I'm exhausted, Vincent." Natalie pulled her cot closer to his bed - positioning it so that her head was at his feet - and plumped up the pillow. "Some sleep would do both of us some good. If you feel anything odd happen, just wake me. All right?"

Vincent nodded. "I will. Good night, Natalie."

Natalie lay back, smiling up at him as her green eyes met his luxurious brown gaze. "I love your eyes the best," she yawned.

Natalie's eyes drifted closed, and her breathing deepened. Vincent watched her for a long moment, a smile twinkling in his eyes and on his lips. His night vision had faded to practically nothing, so it was hard to see her features in the shadows as clearly as before, but he was seeing her in a different light. Human. Faulty. Real.

He saw her.

Natalie's eyes opened suddenly and she turned onto her back to listen. Something wasn't right. Her eyes slowly grew accustomed to the dimness of the room. She heard it again: a ruffle. A shift. A groan. She sat up sharply. Her feet hit the floor and took that one step to Vincent's bedside. She brought her hands up to her mouth to stifle a gasp.

Vincent was thrashing; his face and body continued to phase in and out of different forms.

"Vincent," she said in a soft and calm voice, "Vincent, I need you to be still. I know it hurts, but I need to take the clamps off." Vincent gripped the ends of the bed, looking to Natalie with an expression of terror. Natalie placed a reassuring hand on his arm. "I know, but it's going to be all right. I'm here. Just be as still as possible so I can take the clamps off."

Vincent closed his eyes as he clenched his teeth. The muscle in his jaw twitched wildly as he focused his every ounce of strength on keeping rigidly still. The phasing slowed. Natalie gnawed her lower lip as she reached out to withdraw the clamps. Fluid immediately rushed into his arm. Vincent howled, and his back arched.

"What is it?" Natalie asked, frantic. She pressed her hand against his forehead, and then she felt the pulse at his throat. "Vincent? What's wrong?"

"It burns, Natalie! It burns like acid!"

Panic choked her as she replaced the clamps. His hands didn't release their tight clasp on the side of the bed, but he was able to settle into the mattress. "Maybe that little bit will help relieve the phasing." Her voice quivered. "Vincent, I'm sorry. If I'd known..."

Vincent clenched his jaw tighter. "It is not your fault, Natalie. It made sense that removing the clamps would stop the pain. There was no way you could know my body would lose its tolerance and reject the chemical base so fast."

"I don't like how this feels," she said in a soft whisper as she caressed his arm. "I feel as if this is an experiment, and I never wanted that to happen."

"I know, but do your best. It will be enough." Vincent flinched, and his eyes closed as he took in a quick breath. A grotesque mergence of at least 3 different faces broke out across his features, and he moaned. "Don't leave me, Natalie," he whispered through clenched teeth.

"I won't. I'm right here." Natalie pried his claw from its grip on the bed and held it tightly in hers. It expanded and formed different versions of his same extremity as she held it. "I'm right here."

Natalie desperately wished she felt it safe to give him some drug to let him sleep, but she didn't want to risk a chemical reaction. She felt helpless, and her heart twisted with each restrained moan as yet another barrage of images twisted Vincent's body. _It wasn't supposed to be this way,_ she told herself. But she had known it was a possibility, one that would make the end result all the more miraculous and appreciated.

"Talk."

Natalie's fearful gaze focused on Vincent's contorted face. "What?"

"Speak, Natalie. Reality fades and I don't want to be lost in the chaos." His hand clasped hers for a long moment as he choked back a groan. "Tell me a story."

Natalie swallowed hard, fighting against the sobs that threatened her sanity. "All right." Calm and warmth filled her voice. "I'll see if I can remember something I haven't told you already."

"Tell me how--" Vincent's voice broke with a roar of pain as his face fully took on the shape of Death Gigas. Blood trickled from the corners of his eyes, and he growled deep within his throat as his large grayish fist clenched Natalie's hand.

Natalie's face went from pale to yellow, and she kissed his hand. "I'll tell you how I found your Turk picture."

Natalie took in a deep breath, grappling with the panic that refused to be pushed completely away. Death Gigas finally faded to a bluish animal she remembered as Galian Beast. She choked back a sob, stroking the bluish paw in an effort to soothe his pain. _Don't die. Please._

"Believe it or not," Natalie began softly, "while I still attended high school we were allowed on a field trip to this very Mansion. It was a fluke thing my teacher arranged for his honor students. I believe Shinra used it as a recruitment tactic. Show the glamorous side to the corporation in hopes the honor students would sign up straight out of school."

The Galian Beast phased out again, leaving Vincent's face covered with sweat and blood. Natalie's hand tightened on his, and she pressed her lips against it as she caressed his cheek. "Hold on, Vincent. Hold on."

Vincent imperceptibly nodded.

Natalie took in a deep breath before continuing. "I had no idea about the basement laboratory, and so it confused me why they brought us. After all, we were science students. We didn't care much for the perks of being involved in the Shinra Hierarchy." Natalie sighed, caressing the back of his hand with her thumb. "Then Professor Hojo and Lucrecia met us. Most of us knew who they were before they even introduced themselves. I knew who he was because of his involvement in Professor Gast's research of the Cetra - I wasn't interested in the genetic sciences yet - and my teacher's stories of him, you, and Lucrecia."

Vincent loosened his death grip on her hand. So did his grip on the other side of the bed.

Natalie took it as a good sign. She kissed his hand and leaned closer. "Rest, Vincent. Rest. I'll finish the story. All right?"

Vincent gave a slight nod.

"All right. So, they introduced themselves and then led us around the Mansion on a general tour. Because I was bored, I drifted from the group to do my own examination and perusal. Sixteen-year-olds have a tendency toward excessive curiosity."

Vincent's lips twitched with a smile.

Natalie's face and body relaxed. "I found a room with a piano, so I tickled the ivories a bit. I found a lovely arboretum, of a sort, and lingered in the sun while surrendering to a few fantastical daydreams of midnight meetings and risky rendezvous. With you, of course." She caressed his cheek with the back of her fingers. More color had returned to his face.

"Then, much to my delight," Natalie continued quietly, "I found a small library with a little writing desk. It almost looked as if it were used as an office. When I sat at the desk, I searched the drawers and cubbies just to see what type of person had used it. Imagine my reaction when I found your picture tucked between two literature books. I... I was amazed. You were so handsome. So... So real." Natalie smiled. "I suppose I shouldn't have, but I kept it. I've always loved that picture. Always kept it with me. On those cold nights when loneliness hit me hardest, I would dig out that picture and play out an entire rendezvous with you. Everything was always so crystal clear. Your reaction to each thing I said so true to form; the expression in your eyes when I told one of my infamous bad jokes, your smirk when I did something embarrassingly funny..."

Vincent opened his eyes. "Sixteen and in love with a mystery," he rasped, smiling.

"Shh. Don't talk, Vincent." Natalie stood. "I'm going to get you some water. I'll be right back." They reluctantly released hands.

Natalie hurried to the desk to retrieve the thermos of water she kept in a small dorm fridge. Then she rushed back to his side. Natalie helped him lift his head and guided the straw into his mouth, holding it as he took long droughts of the chilled liquid. Once he had enough, she set it aside and helped him lie back. She took hold of his hand again and turned his arm so that she could see the inner side. The skin just behind the metal guides was red and inflamed.

Natalie gnawed on her lower lip. "I need to get some gel," she whispered. "It'll only take a moment."

Natalie hurried to the table on the far wall near the X-ray machine, grabbing the tube of local anesthetic she had found while organizing the lab. He took a firm hold of her arm the moment she returned to his side.

She caught his gaze. "It's coming?" He nodded slightly.

Natalie rushed to remove the cap, spread some of the gel on the skin where the metal guides disappeared inside, and then tossed it aside.

She tightly gripped his hand with both of hers. "Vincent, I think I need to use the claw's mechanism. Do you remember what I told you before?" Vincent imperceptibly nodded, eyes closed tight. "So I need to remove the tubes. Hold on while I look for the catch."

Vincent's grip tightened on her arm briefly as she leaned forward for a closer look at the metal guides. She touched them gently, feeling out each crevice, knob, and button in an attempt to find the release for the tubes. Every once and a while she saw an expression near desperation on Vincent's face and knew the pain and chaotic phasing edged ever closer. Her stomach tightened with a lurch when their gazes met, and she nodded as she bit her lower lip. She pressed her lips together, releasing an annoyed exhalation of breath.

"Dammit!" Natalie turned to a bookcase, halted by Vincent's frantic clasp on her arm. She turned toward him, a similar expression of panic in her wide eyes. "I know, Vincent, but I need to see if I can find the diagram in one of Hojo's reports." She covered his hand with hers to give it a squeeze. "I'll be right over there."

Vincent nodded slightly as he released his grip, watching her every move with an expression of barely restrained dread. Natalie pawed through drawers and file cabinets, rifling through manila folders and thumbing through dog-eared books looking for the design that would let her help him. Every twitch from Vincent's direction captured her attention, and then she was back into the files with renewed fervor.

"Aagh!"

Vincent's exclamation of agony brought her head up. Natalie dropped the book and ran to his side, grasping his hand so tightly that his eyes opened and met hers.

"I'm here. Shh. Shh," she soothed in a choked voice. She stroked the sweat from his forehead and temples.

Vincent's grip tightened around hers as his eyes squeezed shut, blood escaping the corners again. Natalie caressed them away with the tips of her fingers, chewing her lower lip until she could taste her own blood.

"It isn't fair," she choked out. "I can't relieve any of your pain. I can't stop the phasing. I'm powerless to help you through the toughest time in your life..." Natalie's voice broke on a sob. "Vincent, I'm so scared. I want to give you something, but... Oh God," she whispered as she pressed his hand against her lips. "I didn't know, Vincent. I'm so sorry. I didn't know." She pressed his hand against her forehead and cheek. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry..."

After what seemed endless hours, Vincent quieted and drifted to sleep. His breathing was ragged and labored, and his pallor didn't alleviate Natalie's suspicions he wouldn't survive the night. She put on a brave face for him, though, and didn't let the tears of mental and emotional exhaustion slip past. Once his breathing deepened in sleep, her search for the diagram began in earnest. She had decided there would be no rest until she eased his agony. Nothing else mattered. Her mind recognized nothing else.

It was Vincent or nothing.

Natalie found the diagram for not only the release of the tubes from the metal guides, but also for the mechanism within the claw. So, shortly after Vincent drifted to his not-so-restful slumber, Natalie tenderly pulled Vincent's arm to a position where she could reach said catch. It had taken barely a moment for the tubing to be free of his arm. Then she had set the claw aside with a sob of relief, knowing her next project would be the study the diagram of the mechanism it held.

Natalie gazed down at Vincent with a sad expression. "I wanted to protect you from this, Vincent," she whispered. "I wanted your cure to be painless. To be simple. To be... To be so many other things." She closed her eyes and lowered her gaze, grabbing fistfuls of the bed sheet. She had wanted so many things to be different. Natalie released a deep breath and opened her eyes, reaching out a hand to gently caress his hair from his face. "Now I'm causing you more pain than Hojo ever did."

Natalie shook her head as she turned away. She retrieved the claw and diagram and began studying it. Much to her numbed surprise, she found that the device within had a portion of Jenova cells held within a container, creating more of its own volition as needed. So Natalie connected the device to the appropriate port of the computer, hacked the security system, and reprogrammed the device to introduce Vincent's original DNA back into his system on a regular and more frequent basis.

Natalie retrieved his original DNA from a no-longer hidden storage facility within the lab, filled the container of the device, and reinserted it into the golden claw. Then Natalie double-checked her programming, ran a simulation, and promptly increased the rate of introduction while programming it with a status monitor that would adjust the amount accordingly.

All took less than an hour.

Natalie released a deep breath as she pushed away from the computer, reassembled claw in hand. Vincent continued to sleep, breathing ragged and skin pale. Natalie sat beside him, too exhausted to feel anything but numbed determination as she reattached his claw, reinserted the tubing, and removed the clamps. Vincent barely had the strength to moan as the liquid irritated the inflamed vessels within his arms.

"All right, Vincent," Natalie said softly as she moved to his opposite side, "now we wait again." Natalie took hold of his hand and squeezed it. There was a slight response. A smile escaped the numbness. "I hope your dreams are nicer than what I've been doing to you. You deserve some relief."

She sat on the edge of the bed, gazing down at him. An expression of calm and comfort was there, and his breathing slowly became less haggard. "I'm still trying, Vincent. I'm still trying to make it go away. Just fight it with me. Okay? Don't give up. Remember what you said? You said that a future with me was better than death."

Natalie released his hand and laid down beside him, holding him tight. "You said that a future with me was better than death," she repeated in a choked voice. "Please, Vincent. Don't leave me alone again."


	16. A Final Farewell

**.: XVI -- A Final Farewell :.**

Natalie stared down at the tombstone in numbed grief.

_'Here rests Vincent Valentine. Comrade. Fellow Savior. Lover of Life. Searcher of Peace. Rest well.'_

_It wasn't supposed to end this way..._

The thought drifted through her fogged mind as she set the flower on the top of the tombstone. No, it wasn't supposed to have ended that way. He was supposed to have been cured. He was supposed to have taken her in his arms and made her feel whole. A part of him. Forever bonded in a way that would never be shared with another soul... Her heart writhed in agony, and she lowered her gaze to the freshly turned soil that hid her one and only love from view.

Natalie dropped to her knees and clutched at the earth with a soul felt sob. "You weren't supposed to die, Vincent," she screeched through her tears. But her voice was only a choked moan.

"Natalie? Why are you here?"

Natalie hunched over, digging her fingers deeper into the cool soil. The temptation to dig out his body nearly overwhelmed her. "I can't leave him alone. Not here. Not anywhere. He needed to be loved. I needed to love him... Oh God, why didn't I just leave him alone? Why did I have to find him?" Her throat closed over the words, and her shoulders racked with tears.

"You gave him new life," the voice whispered in her ear. "You released his soul from torment and gave him peaceful rest. You gave him what no one else could offer. Love and serenity. Would you take it back?"

"Yes," Natalie rasped in desperation. "If it meant he'd still be alive, I would!"

"Then what of me?" Hands from the mysterious voice took hold of her arms and gently made her look up. "Dearest Natalie, don't you love me?"

Natalie gasped, her gaze swallowed by the dark and rich brown depths of Vincent--

--Natalie sat up with a groan, sliding from the bed as she covered her face with her hands. "A dream. It was a dream. It was only a dream," she mumbled over and over.

A dream that had, again, seemed so real. Too real. It spoke volumes, revealing what she believed to be the truth. She killed one so the other could live. She put one to rest so she could live the remainder of her days in happiness with the one she loved more than anything. Natalie turned to look over her shoulder at Vincent's still form. Her body followed. _There you are._ Her eyes clouded with tears as she slowly stepped forward, leaning her hands against the bed and letting her head fall forward as the tears dripped to the sheet.

Waiting had never been such hell.

...The darkness pushed in at Vincent with suffocating clarity. Beasts' howls and inhuman groans of anger, misery, and uncontrolled fury and vengeance. Leering at him. Accusing him of forgetting their power in his life and taking what they gave him for granted. He pushed away from them, scrambling backward.

"I never wanted you! I never wanted your power or your presence!" Vincent raged. A claw took hold of his arm and ripped at his sleeve. He jerked free, flinching as the talons tore into his flesh. "Your strength wanes, dark spirits. Your life force drains. Your power ebbs. Could it be that her lovely hands have bound you?"

They howled, and the red eyes that glowed in the darkness faded to mere shadows. Whispers of inhumanity and callousness.

Vincent stood to his feet, pulling a sleek gun from a holster on his hip. "I bid thee farewell, Hojo. All your creations will vanish. All your power ceases to exist in this world I've chosen. In this life I share with a pure woman. Do you feel it? Do you taste the bitterness of defeat on your lips."

He shot into the darkness and heard a wail of death. "You creatures of the night will receive no more shadows. No more feeding from the despair long harbored in my soul. I am free of you." Vincent laughed, firing into the night again and again and again.

A figure leaped from the gloom and tackled him, burying its teeth and claws into his flesh. Vincent pushed and beat at the thing with his gun and fists, but still it dug in. Vincent bit back a growl of pain and shoved the barrel of his gun under the thing's chin. Their eyes locked. Red and Brown. Vincent and Vincent.

"She wants me," it hissed. "You are weak. You are not enough to satisfy her hunger."

Vincent's eyes blackened with rage. "She wants me, for she is the one who designed the cure from you."

The two grappled, dodging blows and causing bruises to form and blood to fall. Minutes faded to hours but still they fought, hurling insults and fists. Vincent detected a deterioration of strength in his hated alter ego and seized the opportunity, kicking him back and scrambling to his feet. Red Vincent glared up at him and the barrel of his gun.

"You cannot kill what you know yourself to be," it said harshly.

"I can kill what I detest, creation of Hojo. You."

Red Vincent's eyes widened in fear.

He fired...

blackness swallowed

pasts exploded outward

...Vincent looked around him. He was in Nibelheim outside the Shinra mansion, ages before Sephiroth had become twisted with his evil desire for godhood.

He focused his attention on the solitary figure standing outside the gate of the Shinra Mansion and blinked with surprise. "Lucrecia."

Lucrecia faced him, expression sorrowful. "Vincent." She looked down, removing her glasses to self-consciously tuck them into the breast pocket of her white lab coat. "You've been gone a long time."

"I know."

Lucrecia looked up. "Why?"

Vincent heard a whisper on the breeze and looked behind him. "I have a chance for a different life now," he told her absently. No one approached. He focused again on Lucrecia's pained expression. "A chance at a better one. With a woman who loves what I am, what I was, and what I could be."

Her eyes darkened. "Do you love her?"

Vincent nodded, something within making him keep his distance from the shade of his past. "I do." Another whisper was heard, and he again turned to look behind him, eyes searching the horizon and the town.

"You once said you loved me," she accused softly.

Vincent turned. "I did. But that was another life. Another Vincent."

Lucrecia frowned. "Another Vincent? There is no other Vincent. There is you, and you said you loved me. What right does she have to take you away?"

Vincent watched her face for a long moment, waiting for any hint of the tenderness he'd once felt. It didn't come. "As you made your decision to be with Hojo, I've made my decision to be with her."

"Because she gave you what you wanted," she retorted. "She's manipulating you!"

"No," Vincent pressed, "because I love her."

Lucrecia's face twisted with misery.

"I love her, Lucrecia," he said again. "I want to dream of her. I want her to bear my children. I want to grow old with her." He shook his head, and the whisper caressed his brain. "You cannot stay here. There is no longer any place for you in my dreams."

Her chin tilted upward. "I don't believe you."

"Lucrecia." Vincent stepped forward to rest a hand on her shoulder. He met her gaze. "Lucy, rest. Sleep. Remember the good times, as I will, and let yourself fade to a pleasant memory."

"Vincent... Vincent, please..."

Vincent dropped his hand from her shoulder, and he turned to move toward the voice.

He heard a sigh behind him and the whisper of a kiss on his cheek. "Good-bye, Vincent. My Turk."

"Good-bye, Lucrecia."...

...Vincent opened his eyes and sat up. "Natalie!"

Natalie vaulted to her feet from the cot at his side, pausing a mere instant before throwing herself into his arms. "Vincent - thank you God - I thought you were dying. Vincent. Vincent..." She continued to sob his name as she kissed his mouth and face.

Vincent pulled her tight against him, relishing the luscious warmth of her body against him, the sweet taste of her lips on his, the heavenly sparks of her hands in his hair, and the blessed freedom of silence in his mind.

The End 


End file.
